The Others
by Marika
Summary: *New Chapter* An accident with an experimental machine send the pilots to another place, where they meet some people who are hauntingly familiar....
1. Prologue

"I don't like this, something ain't right," Duo muttered as the five of them crept, still unopposed, into the main chamber at the Oz research facility. "This is too easy."  
  
"The base is supposed to be shut down for a week, while they update the security systems," Quatre murmured. "It makes sense that there'd be no one around."  
  
"It's just too damned convenient."  
  
"Duo..."  
  
"Yeah, Heero?"  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"He's right," Wufei growled.  
  
"You see that? I heard him, did you hear that?" Duo exclaimed. "The Wu-man said I was right! This is a historic moment!"  
  
"Duo?"  
  
"Yeah, Wu-man?"  
  
"Shut up. He is right, though. There's no need for all five of us to come on this mission. Any one of us could have handled it by ourselves. There's something very wrong here."  
  
That was when the device they had supposedly come to get info on flickered to life.   
  
"Oh, shit," Duo muttered, staring at the slowly expanding ball of light originating from a metal sphere in the middle of the device. "What's it doing?"  
  
"I think we should get out of here," Quatre muttered, backing up. They were all backing up, trying to stay out of the range of the light. Then there was a brilliant flash of light, followed by an instant of darkness and a stomach-twisting lurch.   
  
When his eyes cleared, Duo was sitting on the floor in front of the machine, which hadn't moved. There was only one problem. When the light had gone off, they'd been standing in a small, darkened room in the back of a supposedly abandoned Oz base. Now they were in a huge, well-lit room with dozens of other machines all around. As there was a shout of alarm from somewhere nearby, he closed his eyes for a second, anticipating a headache. I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning, I just knew it.  
  
Then he drew his gun and, glancing at the others, prepared to figure out what the hell was going on.  
  
-------------------------------------------  
  
Elsewhere in the base, a figure dressed entirely in black with a mask over their head cursed. A low, gravely voice emerged from the mask, and the body was definitely masculine, solving the question of the sex of intruder. "There's something going on with project 3285. According to this, something just came through it."  
  
"That wasn't supposed to work!" said a second masked figure.  
  
"I know that! I'm going to go check it out."   
  
"We have to be out of here in three twenty-eight," the second figure said.  
  
"I know. But if they've got it working, it has to be destroyed. And one of us has to get out of here with that data," the first said, nodding towards a computer where the seconds was working furiously, even as they talked.   
  
"You have to get out of here."  
  
"You're the only one that can break the code in time to download the data and get out of here. I can't get that job done. This other thing has to be done. If I don't make it to the rendezvous in time, you leave without me, understand?"  
  
"But..."  
  
"We need that data. If it weren't so important, we wouldn't have risked coming here. Any of these projects could be deadly. That why, if they finally got one working, it has to be destroyed."  
  
"Be careful."  
  
"Get the job done. I'll see you at the rendezvous."   
  
The first figure drew a gun and, stepping over the bodies of the lab technicians, started running down the hall towards the storage chamber where all of the non-operational experiments were kept. It took one minute, twenty-one seconds to reach the chamber. Two-oh-seven left. Shit. The intruder froze when he arrived on the scene to find that there was some sort of firefight going on between the Alliance forces and... who else? There was slight chance that the Alliance had happened to bring a group of prisoners by their top-secret base, and the intruder knew that none of the team should be down here. So who the hell were they fighting?   
  
The intruder raised his gun and started firing. There wasn't much cover in the hallway, but it didn't matter much. By the time the small security force realized that they were being attacked from two directions, it was too late, they were already dead, most from the intruder's gun, but when they started to turn to face the new danger, someone in the storage chamber started picking them off with lethal precision, one-by-one. In a few seconds there were twelve bodies on the ground, and the intruder proceeded cautiously forward.   
  
A voice echoed down the hall. "Shit! Heero, that guy's almost as good a shot as you!"  
  
The intruder paused. That voice sounds very familiar. No, it can't be. He should be miles away by now.  
  
Even more wary than before, the intruder continued forward.   
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
"He's coming this way," Quatre reported nervously from the security monitor, occasionally glancing down guiltily at the man he'd killed to get to this position.   
  
"You think he's on our side or not?" Duo asked, speaking to the group in general. "He did kill those... whoever they were."  
  
"Don't make assumptions," Heero growled.  
  
"I don't think it's going to matter much," Wufei said, pointing at another screen where they could clearly see another squad of men running down the halls, coming in this direction. "They'll probably kill him."  
  
"Unless we get to them first," Duo replied with an evil grin, withdrawing something from his pocket. The others stared at him.  
  
"Do you always carry around grenades?" Quatre asked.  
  
"Yup. Never leave home without them. It's my safety blanket. But I'm pretty sure, if we wait long enough, they'll all come running right by that door..."  
  
"Do it," Heero said shortly, and went back to searching through the computer, trying to figure out where the hell they were, why the men weren't wearing Oz uniforms, and what the hell was going on. So far, not much luck. Judging by the level of security that he was working through, someone had designed a very very good security system.  
  
Duo grinned at Heero's words, and went back to watching the cameras, waiting for the men to come within reach, fingering the pin of the grenade.   
  
"What about him?" Quatre asked, pointing at the masked man.   
  
"He'll turn around and run when he sees the soldiers, if he's got any sense, and if he doesn't then he doesn't deserve to live anyway."  
  
They watched as the intruder froze, seeing the men running at him. Almost as quickly as Heero, the gun came up and the man started firing. Three soldiers dropped immediately. "Shit, maybe he doesn't have the sense to run," Duo muttered. "Or maybe he doesn't need to."  
  
As they watched, though, the intruder turned and started to run back down the hall, firing over his shoulder as he ran. Duo grinned. "Here they come!" He pulled the pin and threw the grenade with a practiced arc. "Three, two, one..."  
  
They all saw the intruder throw himself forward, covering his head with his arms an instant before the grenade went off. The soldiers were all instantly killed, and the intruder was caught by the force of the blast and thrown a dozen feet down the hallway until he crashed into the wall. Suddenly the screens went blank. "What the fuck..."  
  
"They've cut me off," Heero reported. "They must have figured out our position."  
  
Suddenly the doors to the hallway slammed shut with an authoritative sound, and they all heard the hiss of gas being released. A few seconds later five unconscious bodies slumped to the floor.  
  
  



	2. Part 1

When Duo woke up, his head hurt a lot. A lot. Did he mention that it hurt a lot? He moaned and managed to maneuver himself into a sitting position, trying to tell himself that it was just his imagination, that Oz hadn't really chosen to have a parade of every single one of their mobile suits across the top of his head. He was fairly certain it was actually true.   
  
When he finally got up the courage to open his eyes, the dim light immediately sent stabs of pain through his eyes and directly into his brain. He closed them again, breathing deeply, then opened them again. The pain was marginally less this time, and he kept them open, momentarily grateful for whoever it was that had decided to keep the lights low. His gratitude faded, however, when he noticed the metal cuffs that sheathed his arms from wrists to elbows, and held them together, forcing his elbows in at an unnatural angle. He couldn't move his arms at all, not even twist them a little to ease the pressure. Even Oz wasn't this crazy. Of course, they'd been able to get off the cuffs Oz used with no problems. These looked like they might be a little more difficult.  
  
"Is anyone else awake?" he asked as his eyes refused to focus on anything more than a foot away.  
  
"Hn." That would be Heero. He would wake up first.  
  
"I think I'm here. I'm not sure if I'd hurt so much if I was dead," Quatre said quietly. "Trowa?" he asked.  
  
"Here."  
  
"What gas was that?" Wufei asked, and Duo frowned. Was I the last one to wake up? How embarrassing.  
  
There was a long silence, then Heero muttered. "I can't identify it."  
  
That was a surprise. "You mean the Perfect Soldier actually can't identify some sort of weapon?" Duo hooted. "I never thought I'd see the day."  
  
Silence. Duo's eyes were clearing now, and he looked around the dimly-lighted room, he saw the others all laying around in varying stages of consciousness. Duo forced himself to get to his feet, ignoring the jackhammer it set off in his skull. He walked very carefully over to the door and examined the lock. Electronic, with the mechanism on the outside, damn it. He wasn't going to be able to pick this one. He sank back down to a sitting position, leaning against the wall. "So who do you think they are?"  
  
Silence.   
  
Duo was about to start joking about the various types of gas there were in the world, starting with the type exuded from the body, when suddenly the lights came on full force. He winced as the light seemed to stab into his brain, and raised his arms to protect his eyes. After a few seconds, the pain started to fade, and his eyesight returned, slowly. He saw the others also covering their eyes, and Quatre whimpered in pain. Duo looked around the featureless room, containing a camera in the corner and not much else. Not even a mattress to lie on. These guys were about as considerate as Oz. The door to his left suddenly slid open, and before he could react, a booted foot kicked him in the shoulder, sending him sprawling away from the door.   
  
"Hey, tiger, we have a surprise for you," someone outside said, and a figure was shoved through the door. Duo blinked in surprise as he identified the intruder, still masked but now with his hands also bound in front of him, and legs shackled together by a short chain. The intruder tripped up on the chain and stumbled, falling to the floor, but partway through the fall he somehow tucked his head down and managed to turn the fall into a graceful roll. Acts like Heero, Duo noted.   
  
The intruder turned to face the soldiers, hands held in front of him defensively, but the soldiers just laughed and closed the door, leaving them in the bright light. The intruder turned to look at them, and Duo saw the intruder's eyes open slightly, and thought he heard a faint gasp, so faint that it was barely audible. "No!" he hissed, fingers clenching in a fist. "How did they get you all?"  
  
Before they could react to that statement, he turned towards Quatre, eyes narrowing accusingly. "I ordered you to go to the rendezvous!" he said. "How could you be so stupid?! I ordered you not to wait for me!"  
  
Quatre backed up a step before the rage in the man's eyes. "I... I'm sorry, sir. I think you must be mistaken. I've never seen you before."  
  
"Sir?" the man growled. Suddenly, with a speed Duo had never seen before in anyone except Heero, the man ran across the room to Quatre. He grabbed the front of Quatre's shirt with his bound arms, and lifted him into the air, pushing him up against the wall.   
  
Quatre gasped and tried to pull at the hands which held him pressed firmly against the wall. It was obvious from the way he was gasping that he was having trouble breathing. Then his eyes flew open wide. "Allah!" he gasped. "His eyes!" The man suddenly dropped Quatre on the ground and backed up several steps, eyeing them suspiciously.  
  
"Who are you?" he growled.   
  
Quatre looked up from where he was sitting on the ground, gasping for breath. "Look... look at his eyes," he wheezed, eyes still wide.  
  
Given that clue, Duo looked at the man's eyes, and got a shock. They were completely white around two very tiny pupils, with no sign of color at all. What the hell did that mean? "Why did you attack him?" he asked.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" the intruder repeated. "What the hell are you? What game are they playing?"  
  
Duo glanced at Heero, and saw that they were thinking along the same lines. Then he exchanged a glance with Wufei, who also nodded. At an unspoken sign, they threw themselves at the intruder, intending to grab and control him, at least take off the mask and probably demand some answers. Their arms were tied in front of them, but the intruder was also bound and wore a pair of cuffs on his ankles. It should not have been a problem for three highly-trained and highly-skilled Gundam pilots.  
  
Shouldn't have been, but it was. Whoever he was, he was incredibly strong and fast. After Duo got thrown halfway across the room and slammed into the wall by an apparently effortless push by the man, he resorted to dirty tricks, and tackled the man, secure in the knowledge that the man couldn't kick him because of the manacles on his ankles. The man went down with a grunt, and Heero placed his knee in the center of the man's back, preventing him from rising. With his arms pinned to the ground beneath him and Heero kneeling on his back, he had no leverage to push them off, so although he kicked his legs like mad for a few seconds, he couldn't get free.   
  
"Enough!" Wufei said, and pulled the mask off. There was a long white braid concealed under the mask, and the intruder was facing downward, but that couldn't distract them from one very important fact:  
  
The intruder was a girl.  
  
"Onna!" Wufei exclaimed, sounding disgusted. Heero actually loosened his grip on his... her shoulders, so she was able to roll away.  
  
"How observant of you," she remarked in that low growl that couldn't possibly be natural. It definitely belonged to a large, burly man, not a girl their own age. There was also no explication of why she had a body that looked like a man's with huge shoulders and no chest to speak of. "I guess there's no need for this anymore," she remarked, and reached up to her throat where there were a few circles with wires sticking out of them taped to her neck. She pulled them off. "So now that you've displayed your astonishing powers of observation in determining that I am indeed a woman, why don't we try again." Now her voice was quite feminine, high and soft. She tossed her braid over her shoulder, then reached up and touched something under her shirt over her shoulders. Then she reached down and pulled at something by her waist. Suddenly a mass of padding fell out of her shirt to the ground at her feet. It was generally shaped like a man's torso, and she suddenly looked very like a girl. She looked directly at Heero and said in a threatening voice, "Who the hell are you?"  
  
"We could ask the same question," Duo exclaimed, rubbing his hip as best he could with his hands bound in front of him. He'd hit it very hard when she threw him across the room. "You're awfully strong for a girl."  
  
Her face was absolutely expressionless. "You're awfully strong yourselves. What game are they playing?"  
  
"What game is who playing?" Quatre asked, having long since regained his breath.   
  
The girl peered at him through those white eyes. Duo realized that the rest of her body was like that too, very, very pale, if not white. Her skin was like chalk, and her hair was yellow-white. An albino?   
  
Whatever she saw, she apparently didn't like, because she walked over to the door and sat against the wall right next to it, facing them. Her face was a blank mask, and her mouth was firmly sealed. Duo knew that expression well - she wasn't talking any more.   
  
The door slid open, and she rolled out of the way to avoid the kick a guard aimed in her direction. "Away from the door, Eight," he said. Her expression didn't change as she stood up and backed up a few steps. The guard gestured with the rather large gun he was holding, and she took another few steps back. Eight guards carrying guns trooped into the room, five of them keeping their weapons as trained on each of the five boys, two of them aimed their weapons at the girl, and the last stayed back, eyeing them all suspiciously. Duo glanced at Heero and hoped he wasn't having any bright ideas on ways to self-destruct without a Gundam.   
  
"Very interesting. Would you mind telling me what exactly you intended with that little charade?" asked a man in a neat uniform with red hair. Duo's jaw dropped open as he recognized the man, but realized that both the uniform and the short hair were new.  
  
"Treize!" Wufei gasped.   
  
What in the world was Treize Khushrenada doing on some supposedly abandoned, back-water base? It could be that the information they'd been sent to get was more important than anyone was letting them know, but that didn't explain why he'd cut his hair, or why he was wearing a strange uniform that was neither Oz nor Federation, wasn't anything that he could identify at all. All the data they had on Treize indicated that he was a nobleman to the core, and no one had ever seen him in anything even vaguely resembling a uniform.  
  
Treize looked at him coldly, then for some reason turned back to the girl. "What do you expect to accomplish with this insanity? Or is that it, that you have lost your mind?" he asked in ultra-refined tones.   
  
"Velanz, if I ever go crazy, you'll know, because it will be marked by a suicidal attempt on your life. Not an attempt, actually, I'll kill myself, but I will get you in the process. They're not mine," her eyes flicked briefly to Quatre.   
  
"Yes, so you were trying to show me with that little display."  
  
"I don't expect you to believe me, but it happens to be the truth. I don't know who they are, and I've never seen them before in my life. I was under the assumption you made them somehow, although why you would want to make Earthlings that looked like us is beyond me."  
  
"Hey, wait a second!" Duo protested. "We're not from Earth! We're colonists. And who are we supposed to look like?!"  
  
The girl and Treize exchanged a glance. "Fascinating," he finally remarked. "I will have to remember to find out what this was supposed to accomplish during your interrogation. I also wish to know why you accessed the same information twice, and how you managed to activate the machine in the storage room. I thought I'd give you one opportunity to give me the information I want before we do this the hard way."  
  
She turned her eyes away from him, letting them settle on the wall, not speaking. He glanced around the room, and they all stared at him, but didn't say anything. He sighed. "So be it." His eyes rested on the girl again, and something akin to a smile flickered across his face. "Did I ever give you my condolences on the death of Ambassador Dorlian?"  
  
Something flashed in the girl's eyes for a second, although her expression didn't change. "No, I believe not. Even if you had, I don't think I would have accepted them. I'd have to consider them insincere, considering you had him assassinated, don't you think?"  
  
"Not necessarily. I had the utmost respect for the Ambassador. He was an obstruction, but one that might have been dealt with in another way, if the circumstances were different. If you must know the truth, his assassination was put on a high priority solely because of his relationship to you."  
  
The girl stared at him calmly. "Very clever," she remarked in a cold voice. "Pleased to see you've finally learned something about me from all those months you held me. It took you long enough."  
  
"We learned enough to break you," he said with a pleasant smile. "But it isn't you that we're starting with." He looked across the room. "Four."  
  
Quatre stood up smoothly despite the restraints, a look of resignation on his face, but also one of determination. "Yes sir?"  
  
A flicker of confusion passed over his face, but was quickly replaced by that pleasant mask. "You're first in the chamber, I'm afraid."  
  
Quatre didn't reveal anything, only shrugged slightly. "Whenever you're ready, Treize."  
  
Treize looked at the girl again. "What game are you playing at, Tiger?"   
  
"I already told you," she repeated with an air of exhausted patience. "He's not mine. I don't know who the hell he is. You're not going to get anything about us out of him."  
  
"Still with the tired stories?"  
  
"Don't torture him, he's just a boy."  
  
"Is that your plan? To spare them this? That's pathetic. Take him."  
  
"Velanz, I'm telling you, he doesn't know anything," she repeated in a low voice, but there was a hint of urgency to it, and she took a step towards him.  
  
"I warned you," he said simply, and nodded to the free guard, who walked up to her and slammed the butt of his rifle into her jaw. She staggered backwards, but didn't fall, so he struck her again, and again. On the third time she was finally driven to her knees, and the guard raised the rifle again, but Treize raised his hand. "Enough. Bring him," he said simply, and two of the guards took Quatre's upper arms, fastened chains around his ankles, and dragged him out of the room.  
  
The girl stared after him for a minute after the door closed. "What sort of person is he?" she asked quietly, without looking at them.  
  
"What do you mean?" Trowa asked, just as quietly.  
  
"I don't know who you are, but it's obvious you aren't normal kids. Is he a strong person? Strong willed?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because they think he's someone he's not. And that particular person is very resistant to torture, and has information that they want. They're going to torture him for that information."  
  
"Don't worry," Duo told her. "He won't tell them anything."  
  
She stared at him, then smiled slightly. It wasn't pretty expression, for all that she was incredibly beautiful. "I wasn't talking about him telling them anything. You have no idea what they're doing to him. I was trying to figure out if he will return with his mind intact."  
  
"What?!" Trowa asked sharply.   
  
"The device they're going to use has driven many strong people insane before. I don't know your... friend, or partner, or whatever he is. Bu I'm trying to warn you now that he may not be the same person when they bring him back."  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
Trowa was hard-pressed to sit quietly and maintain the facade of control, when what he really wanted to do is go charging through the door and find Quatre, or at least pace back and forth for a while, or maybe punch the wall. After delivering her disturbing message of warning about Quatre's possible mental state, the girl had fallen silent and refused to talk again. It had been almost three hours, and they still didn't know anything about her, not even her name or what she was doing here, or who was the man who looked like Treize, but somehow wasn't.  
  
Suddenly the door slid open, and the guards tossed a figure inside. "Quatre!" Duo exclaimed as Trowa caught sight of a familiar head of blond hair. Duo was instantly at Quatre's side, trying to pull him to his feet, but Quatre curled up in the fetal position and wouldn't - or couldn't - move. He just sat on the floor, shaking, rocking back and forth, and occasionally moaning to himself. There also wasn't a mark on him - what was wrong with him?  
  
"What's wrong with him?" Trowa asked the girl, becoming more panicked as Quatre refused to respond to anything they said or did.  
  
"I told you before."  
  
"What did they do to him?"  
  
"They tortured him." A critical eye ran quickly over Quatre before she went back to staring into space. "He isn't broken." There was a hint of surprise in her voice.  
  
Without really meaning to, Trowa took several steps towards her, intending to push her up against the wall, maybe force some answers out of her, but as his hands reached for her, she suddenly rose and twisted her arms, knocking his aside and grabbing his shirt. She shoved him up against the wall, then dropped him. "I warned you this might happen," she said quietly. "He isn't broken, that much I can tell. And it's more than you had any right to expect. He'll come out of it on his own, eventually."  
  
There was an odd tone to her voice as she said that, and Duo caught on to what it was first. "He'll come out of it eventually on his own, but you know a way to help him now, don't you?"  
  
She avoided Trowa's gaze.   
  
That was enough of an answer for Trowa, who stepped towards her. She backed up a step, then another, finally running into the wall as she tried to avoid him. "How can we help him?" he asked quietly, aware that she would read the threat in his words without any effort on his part.  
  
"I can't tell you."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"It connected to the way that people resist the chamber, and they're watching us now," she said with a slight nod towards the camera in the corner. "There are a half-dozen cameras on us right now."  
  
"What does that have to do with anything?" Duo demanded.   
  
"Knowledge is power," she said seriously. "The more they know about me, the more dangerous they are. If I help him... they may learn something about me that they can use against me in the future. Maybe."  
  
"You'll leave him like this... on the off-chance that they might learn something that they might be able to use in the future?" Duo repeated incredulously.  
  
"Coward," Wufei remarked disparagingly.   
  
"There is more at stake here than him, or me! Thousands of lives could hang in the balance! Do you want me to risk that for him?!" she demanded. "You don't know their torture techniques, I do. I've fought them for months at a time, and I beat them by the slimmest of margins. Don't judge my actions until you know me!"  
  
Trowa stared at her. "I don't know who you are, or what is going on here, but thousands of lives hang on his actions, as well. If he does not survive..." he couldn't bring himself to face that. "Please." Seeing her expression harden, he added, "I love him."  
  
She stared at him, and her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. Suddenly she stood up and walked over to where Quatre lay on the floor. "Touch him," she instructed, crouching down next to him. "He needs to know that he's with friends, that he's not alone. He can't see you now, he's locked himself off from the physical world as a defense. Let him know that he won't be tortured if he returns." As Trowa moved closer to touch Quatre's shoulders and cheek, she started murmuring to him. "Shhh. Open your eyes, you're back here. Open your eyes."  
  
"No, Allah, it hurts," he murmured.  
  
"They're not torturing you anymore," she said firmly. "Open your eyes now." There was a hint of anger and command in her voice.   
  
Quatre shivered. "No," he whimpered.   
  
"Now!" she commanded sharply, and slapped his face.   
  
Trowa grabbed her hand. "What are you doing?!"  
  
"I'm bringing him back. Open your eyes!" she repeated, and pulling her hands free, she slapped him again.   
  
Quatre started, and then suddenly sat up, his eyes opening wide. "Where am I?" he demanded.  
  
"You're back in the cell," the girl replied, standing up and backing away. "Talk to him," she instructed. "He's back."  
  
"Quatre, are you all right?" Trowa asked, wishing he could embrace the smaller boy, but that was impossible with the cuffs on his arms. He settled for getting as close as possible, and Quatre leaned heavily into his chest, tears streaming down his face.  
  
"It hurt so much... I wanted..." he couldn't seem to get out a full sentence. "But I didn't break. I thought of you and I didn't break." He suddenly turned to look at the girl. "And you brought me back. How did you know how?"  
  
"I've been where you were a couple of times," she replied. "And I've always managed to come back. The key is to learn to bring yourself back. I probably won't be there the next time."   
  
Trowa felt Quatre stiffen when she mentioned a next time, but before he could say anything the door opened again. In came the eight guards, followed by the man who looked like Treize. He turned to the girl. "What made you say that he wasn't one of yours?" he asked immediately.  
  
"What makes you think I would ever tell you?" she asked coldly.  
  
"Because there is something here that is out of both our control, and until we figure out what it is, it could hurt either of us, both of us, or just a lot of innocents. I know you don't want that, so I am proposing a kind of truce on the subject until one of us figures out what is going on. Of course you will remain a prisoner."  
  
"Of course. So you're just going to tell me what you know?" she asked sarcastically.  
  
"Of course not. But in order to get your opinion it will be necessary to give you certain information, and I know that you will probably get as much information out of our discussions as most people would get in a report."  
  
She glanced at Quatre, then said, "Bone density."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Bone density. That's how I knew that he wasn't mine. I knew something was wrong when he called me 'sir,' which I'm assuming you guessed. So I picked him up. We're slightly heavier than normal humans, due to your work. Thicker bones mean that they don't break as easily, but it makes us a little heavier. He's normal, even a little light. That's when I knew. He also said 'Allah', which is an old word for a particular God that was in use several hundred years ago on Earth. None of us would ever swear by any god, for obvious reasons."  
  
"Indeed," he remarked. "And, of course, he responded easily when I called him Four. I remember that surprised me at the time."  
  
"There is that," she replied. "Now it's your turn."  
  
"I believed that this was some sort of elaborate trick, until we put him in the chamber. He went into himself, the same way Four does, but before he did, he was muttering about stopping something called Oz, and just before he withdrew entirely, he started crying for his father. Obviously, since none of you has a father, and he was at the most unconscious levels at that point, there was something wrong. I had a full genetic scan done." He handed her a few pieces of paper.   
  
She looked at them, then back up at him. "This is impossible. You made this up."  
  
"I assure you, those are his genes."  
  
"It can't be."  
  
"It is."  
  
"What game are you playing?"  
  
"Assume that this data is accurate. What conclusion would you draw from it?"  
  
She shook her head. "It can't be true."  
  
He frowned. "I thought we agreed to discuss this. You're hiding something from me."  
  
She gazed at him evenly.   
  
He made a gesture of disgust. "Take her!"  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
They didn't bring her back for almost eight hours, or so Heero's internal clock told him. When they did, they simply tossed her on the floor, the way they had with Quatre. The guards had been carrying her, and when she hit the ground, she went completely limp, not even trying to roll. The door slid closed again.   
  
"Is she..." Quatre asked slowly.  
  
"She's not dead," Duo reported. "Looks about like you did when they brought you back."   
  
Quatre blanched, and actually started shaking again. He had adamantly refused to tell them what their captors had done to him.  
  
"Good." There was a hint of anger in Trowa's voice as he drew the trembling Quatre towards him.   
  
"Trowa, we can't leave her like that!" Quatre protested.  
  
"Why not?" Wufei asked, walking over and looking down at the girl. He nudged her with a toe. "She wanted to do that to you. It's justice."  
  
A low moan interrupted their conversation as the girl slowly rolled over and got to her knees. Unfocussed eyes traveled around the room. "Andrew?" she asked, looking at Quatre. "What? How..."  
  
"I'm not Andrew," he said quietly, staring at her with a disturbing intensity. One hand pressed at his heart.   
  
Her eyes closed, and when they opened, they were hard again, and completely, carefully blank. "It's all right. I remember you." She sat back on her heels and closed her eyes again. "Eight hours?" she asked. "Was it eight hours?"  
  
Heero nodded. "You have an internal clock?"  
  
"Yes. They really don't like me very much, do they?" She laughed once - it was a bitter sound. "No, you don't have to answer that. I know that you don't have any answers."  
  
They all heard the sounds of an explosion somewhere nearby, and the girl's head snapped up. Her eyes traveled to the door, and she snapped, "Get back!"  
  
They stared at her. "What the hell are you talking about?" Duo asked.  
  
"It's an attack! He'll have left orders to kill us to prevent the others from helping us! There are soldiers coming!"  
  
Heero sprung forward, standing next to her, plastered against the wall next to the door. A few seconds later the doors opened, and two soldiers came in, eyes wild, guns drawn. In almost identical movements, Heero and the girl raised their cuffed arms and slammed them into the back of the soldier's necks. The soldiers dropped to the ground, and Heero and the girl scooped up the fallen guns.  
  
"Don't bother," the girl said. Heero was examining the cuffs - maybe they could use the guns to get them off. "You'll only wreck the lock and then we'll never get those things off. But shoot anyone in that uniform that comes through the door. There will be others on their way to rescue me - don't shoot them."  
  
Heero nodded, then aimed out the door and pulled the trigger of his gun.   
  
"Good shot," she murmured, and also fired. More and more soldiers came after them, until first Heero, then the girl ran out of bullets. "Get out of sight of the door," she urged. "If they don't see us, they may have thought we made a run for it."  
  
"Why don't we?" Duo ventured.  
  
"Not with these on," the girl said, holding out her wrists to display the cuffs. "They've got sensors in them - if we try to leave the room with them on, without them disabling the stupid things, we'll be blown to bits. My people will come here, and they'll be able to get these things off."  
  
Heero looked out the door again, his eyes automatically dismissing the bodies of the soldiers who'd come for them. Or rather, come for the girl. She was important, somehow. His mind automatically filed that fact away - in an emergency, she could make a useful hostage. There were lights flashing and alarms sounding all over the base, but the hall remained empty. Then there was a flash of movement at the end of the hall, and his enhanced vision allowed him to pick out several masked figures moving swiftly down the hall, pausing by each body to make sure they were dead. A part of his mind admired their efficiency and thoroughness. The other part was assessing them as a potential threat as he turned to the girl. "Someone's coming."  
  
"I know. Those are my people."  
  
"Your people?" Quatre asked. "Are you some sort of princess?"  
  
Heero barely managed to withhold a grimace, thinking of the only other princess he knew, who happened to be one of the major irritations in his life.   
  
"A princess?" She actually snorted, a very unladylike and reassuring sound. "Here!" she called to the people outside, standing up and holding out her wrists without putting them through the doorway.   
  
"Diana!" one of the figures exclaimed in a growl. Then all-white eyes turned on the group, and almost instantly a gun appeared in his? hands. "What the..."  
  
"It's a long story. They're not the enemy. Get these things off."  
  
"Yes, sir," the man said, putting the gun away and pulling out a metallic strip. He slid it through a slit in the cuffs, and they suddenly fell away with a click as a second masked man appeared. He also aimed a gun at the five pilots.  
  
"Who... Is this some Alliance trick?"  
  
"I don't think so," the girl... Diana?... said, rubbing her wrists. She closed her eyes for a fraction of a second, just long enough so that he was certain that it wasn't just her blinking. "Bring them along."  
  
"What?" demanded one of them. They all had identical voices, Heero noticed, which probably meant that they were all using voice modifiers like the girl had.   
  
"Bring them. That's an order. I think that they got mixed up in this by accident, and I'm not leaving them for the Alliance doctors to experiment on."  
  
The one with the metal strip reached for Heero's cuffs, while one of the others kept a gun trained on him. The cuffs fell away, and Heero flexed his hands carefully. They seemed just as strong as from before the temporary imprisonment. One by one the man with the strip freed them.   
  
"What now?" Duo asked, eyes flashing.  
  
Diana looked at him oddly, then turned to one of her companions. "Give them weapons." She turned back to the five pilots. "I'm assuming that you know how to use guns?" there was an edge to her voice that suggested that anyone who didn't was somehow deficient.   
  
"You want to give them weapons?!" one of the intruders asked. "But you don't..."  
  
"We've got double the number of people to get out of here, and it's going to take more time. Give them guns now. That's another order."  
  
The intruder hesitated, then turned and offered a firearm to Duo, who took it with a grin. "Thanks, man."  
  
"You take orders from an onna?" Wufei smirked. "Weak."  
  
Diana turned suddenly, aiming a gun precisely at his forehead. "Well you'd better get used to it, because it's *me* that's rescuing you, and if you come to *my* base, you're going to obey *my* orders. If not, we can leave you to the tender mercies of the Alliance. I can tell you that you'll wish you were dead in a very short period of time. Are you coming, or are we going to continue with the smart remarks?"   
  
Wufei looked like he was about to go into apoplectic seizures. His mouth opened and closed several times, and finally he exploded, "I would never follow a weak wo..." his words were cut off as one of the intruders lunged forward and delivered a sharp blow to the junction of his neck and shoulder. Wufei collapsed in a boneless heap on the floor.   
  
The intruder looked at him for a minute, then looked at Diana and shrugged. "My apologies. We do not have time to argue, however."  
  
"I know. Bring him." She gave the others a cold look. "Any other problems?"  
  
"Are we getting out of here or not?" Duo asked as the intruder bent and swung Wufei's body up onto his shoulders with no sign of effort.  
  
"Yes. Now."  
  
At an unseen signal, she and three of the intruders, including the one carrying Wufei, started running down the hall. The four pilots ran after them, with the other two intruders taking up the back. They ran down three halls, the four in the front efficiently gunning down any resistance they found. Suddenly the intruders swerved right into a room. The pilots followed, and saw that one of the intruders was already in an overhead air vent, reaching down to pull Wufei into the vent. He did so with only one arm and again, with no sign of effort.   
  
Heero looked at Diana for instruction, and she jerked her head at the vent. "Follow them. They'll lead us to another room where we can escape. Move it!"  
  
Heero stuck the gun in the back of his pants, then easily pulled himself up into the hole, aware of Diana's eyes on him the entire time. That was a test. She wants to know what we can do, he realized, too late to do anything about it. He simply started following the pair who were dragging Wufei down the ventilation shaft.   
  
Several minutes later, they emerged in another room. It was a very nicely appointed office of some sort, and one of the intruders was already at the desk, typing at a computer. To the right, a panel of wood slid away, revealing some sort of escape hatch. "I'll prep the engines," one of them said, and slid through the open hole and disappeared.   
  
Heero started to move towards the hole, but the intruder still holding Wufei held up a hand. "Not yet. It's rigged to lock if more than one person goes through it. We managed to arrange it so that it resets every minute, but we have to wait that long between jumps." He shifted Wufei slightly. "One of you might want to go through before I toss his body down, if you don't want him just dropping."  
  
"I'll go," Quatre said quickly, looking almost competent holding a gun in his hand. Heero tried to banish that thought - he knew that Quatre was more than competent, or else he wouldn't be a Gundam pilot. It was just that he was so small...  
  
"Somehow I thought you might. Get ready."  
  
Quatre walked up to the hole, watching the intruder for a signal.  
  
"Now!"  
  
With instincts only a Gundam pilot would have, Quatre launched himself down the tube, and the intruder gave a grunt of satisfaction. "Who's next?"  
  
"I'll go," Trowa said. "Then send him through."  
  
"Fine. Get ready."  
  
It seemed like a very long wait until Trowa also left. A minute after that, they sent Wufei down the shoot, and the three intruders and Diana, who had lagged behind, finally arrived. "All set," Diana remarked.  
  
"What's all set?" Duo asked as he waited to go.  
  
"Go now!" the intruder barked, and Duo left, his question unanswered.   
  
Heero set himself to go, counting down the seconds in his head. At exactly one minute, before the intruder could say anything, he jumped feet-first into the tube. He slid down the smooth surface, quickly picking up speed, although the inclination wasn't that great. Thirty-eight point two seconds later, he emerged into the light. And into the middle of a firefight. Quatre and Trowa were pinned down behind a stack of boxes, an unconscious Wufei between them, and were exchanging fire with a bunch of soldiers, who were firing from the doorway. Duo was nowhere to be seen.  
  
Heero automatically raised his weapon and fired several shots. He was exposed, but he had the element of surprise, and the soldiers were pathetically vulnerable. Six fell to his fire before they realized what was happening. As expected, they panicked and scrambled to get out of his range of fire, forgetting that Trowa and Quatre were still waiting. As soon as they made that mistake, the pair of pilots took advantage of that, gunning down the soldiers as they hesitated between two equally deadly sources of fire. That hesitation cost them dearly, and they all fell.  
  
"Move, now!" Heero shouted, and Trowa and Quatre lifted an unconscious Wufei between them and sprinted towards a shuttle. Suddenly Duo was running towards the door, his long braid streaming behind him. He reached it, kicked several bodies out of the way, and then shoved it closed through brute force. He turned his head away from the door, then fired a shot into the lock, destroying any chance at opening it, at least temporarily. "Hiya, Heero!" he shouted gleefully, waving an arm. "Nice shooting!"  
  
"Where were you?" Heero demanded as Duo jogged up to him. They turned in unison, drawing weapons as one of the intruders emerged from the shoot, gun already drawn.   
  
He trained it on them, then holstered it. "You guys are good." There was some grudging respect in his voice. "Get in the shuttle."  
  
"Well?" Heero asked again, hiding his irritation at being ordered around by snapping at the braided pilot. He was quite used to it by now - he'd done it often enough.  
  
"I was trying to get to the door to shut it before they started shooting," Duo said with a broad grin. "But I didn't make it. When the first volley passed me without hitting anything, I decided that even they couldn't all miss the next time, not with their numbers and my position, so I just fell like I was hurt and didn't move until you finished them off. Nice job," he repeated.  
  
Heero resisted the urge to draw his gun and shoot Duo, instead, he wrapped his hand around Duo's braid and dragged him into the shuttle where Quatre was strapping Wufei into a seat. "Yow! Stop that! Hey, leggo!" Duo shouted as Heero continued to exert considerable pressure on his head.   
  
The unnamed intruder, who'd followed them into the shuttle, immediately headed for the front, where his companion was still performing warm-up protocols. A few seconds later Diana arrived. One of the intruders came out of the cockpit as she entered. "They're trying to cut through the door," she reported. "I don't suppose you cooked up a temporary diversion until we're clear."  
  
"Actually," the man said with some relish, and pulled out a small detonator. He activated it, and they all felt an explosion, somewhere else. "Don't worry, nothing crucial, but it ought to buy us a few minutes. Your new friends are good shots."  
  
"Hm." For a second she sounded very familiar.   
  
The minutes seemed to crawl by as they waited for everyone else to arrive. Finally the man in the cockpit took off, although the last of his comrades hadn't arrived yet. The shuttle rose smoothly from the floor, and slowly turned around. "Here he comes," Diana murmured, looking out the still-open door. "Get back," she said to Duo, who had gotten close in an attempt to see out. "Strap yourself in. This may be a bumpy ride."  
  
"Hey, a little shaking isn't going to break anything," Duo stated.  
  
In the next few seconds the last man came flying through the door, Diana slapped the control for the door and it slammed shut, then they accelerated so rapidly that Duo was thrown to the floor and slid against a wall. Everyone else had braced themselves against some part of the shuttle, so they got to watch as he slammed his head hard on unforgiving metal. Duo let out a loud curse, then managed to get to his feet, glaring first at the wall and then at everyone. "If you say anything..." he warned them.  
  
"Distraction 2?" Diana said to the last man, who pulled a second detonator out of his belt as the shuttle began to jerk back and forth. The pilots (those who were conscious, anyway) all recognized the pattern of those trying to avoid enemy fire.  
  
The man pressed the button, and they heard the sound of explosions - many of them, and big ones. Duo groaned. "You're all acting like Heero now, you know that? There are other ways to deal with problems other than blowing them up. Not as much fun, I'll grant you, but there are other ways!"  
  
Diana ignored him. "How long until we're clear?" she asked intently.  
  
"We're clear now," said a voice from the cockpit. The jolting had stopped almost as soon as the explosions had gone off. The distraction had worked.  
  
There were several minutes of silence, then the two who had been in the cockpit came back. "We have about eight hours until we reach the colony," one of them reported. "What are we going to do with them?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but I don't think they're a danger. Or at least I don't think they're our enemies."   
  
"Excuse me, but we're right here," Duo said. "And what do you mean, not our enemies? Will someone please tell me what the hell's going on here?"  
  
Diana studied him. "I think that you're from another dimension," she finally said. "That's the only explanation."  
  
"What?" Duo exclaimed. "Have you lost it or something?"  
  
"Or something," she agreed. Her eyes traveled to one of her companions. "Take it off," she instructed.  
  
"Are you sure?" growled the man.  
  
"What are you afraid of?" Duo cut in, and Heero wished he still had his hand around that baka's braid. Maybe then he'd shut up and they'd learn something. "If you're all girls, I don't mind, I like girls."  
  
One of them laughed softly. "That's not the problem," he said in that low voice, then reached and pulled off the mask. Quatre's face stared calmly at them. "We're not girls," he said with a slow smile, pulling the disks off his neck.  
  
"What the..." Duo broke off as another of them pulled off his mask, and a huge braid fell out.  
  
His double grinned. "Talks a lot, doesn't he?"  
  
"You're saying you don't?" asked a third, pulling off his mask. It was the one who had punched out Wufei before, and he looked just like him.  
  
Trowa just stared at his double, who stared back with the same lack of an expression.   
  
And then Heero was unable to look at anything else, as the one closest to him, the one who'd triggered the last detonation, pulled off his mask, and he found himself staring at his own face.  
  
  
  



	3. Part 2

Duo stared in disbelief at his own face stuck onto someone else's body. But it wasn't his face, not exactly, because there wasn't any color in it, not at all. He had the same coloration as Diana, with white-gold hair and chalk-white skin, and those empty-looking eyes. But the smirk, the features, even the three-foot long braid, even though it was white instead of brown, they were all the same.   
  
"Hey, will you look at that?" his double said mockingly. "I betcha I can make him as white as us," he called to the others. "Watch this," he said to Duo, and then his color changed, as his skin and hair darkened, the first to a pale tone, the second to dark brown. In a few seconds a being identical to Duo in every way but one stared back to him. Only one thing hadn't changed - his eyes remained that awful empty white color.  
  
"Kane, stop it," Diana said. "You had exactly the same reaction, or don't you remember? It was just that your face was covered at the time."  
  
"You take all the fun out of it," the other Duo - had she called him Kane? - said. But his hair and face returned to their normal bleached color as he started removing the same type of padding that Diana had worn.  
  
"So you're the ones they thought I was," Quatre said, hand on his heart as he stared at his double. Because Quatre was so fair to begin with, it was even harder to tell those two apart, the only major difference being in their eyes.   
  
His double stared at him. "They tortured you because they thought you were me," he said quietly. It wasn't a question; it was a statement of fact. "I'm sorry."  
  
"They used to do that to you all the time," Quatre replied. "I'm sorry for that."  
  
Diana regarded them both with a critical eye. "It seems that the two of you share more than just genetics."  
  
"Genetics?" Kane said sharply, his eyes hardening. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"You weren't listening earlier. I got to see a workup of his genes," she said, nodding towards Quatre. "They figured out it wasn't him when he started crying for his father, and did a scan."  
  
"Father?" Trowa's double asked. "He has a father?"  
  
"Apparently, unless he was playing some sort of a game," she turned that hard look on Quatre, who stared at his feet.  
  
"Had a father. He died," he said shortly, then glanced at his double. "You don't have a father?"  
  
"None of us do," the other one said quietly. He looked at Diana. "You said something about genetics?"  
  
"Yes. I saw the workup, and his genes are identical to yours, with only a few exceptions. 1537-1628, for example, or 2387-2399."  
  
If it was possible, Duo's double got a little paler, although his expression didn't change. "You mean..."  
  
Diana nodded. "There have been some slight modifications - minor gene therapy - done on all of them, but aside from that, they're about what you would have been if you were born human. As I was saying before, I believe they're from a different dimension. It's the only explanation I can think of. That failed experiment that went off - it was supposed to be able to control black matter. It would have provided an endless power supply, if it worked, but it didn't so the Alliance eliminated the scientists and stuck it in that warehouse. But it did activate for a few seconds. I'm guessing if they were inclined to talk, they'd tell us they were near a similar machine, and they ended up here." She raised an eyebrow and looked at Quatre, who blushed and looked down again.  
  
"We saw something like that, and a bright flash of light, and then we were here," Quatre said, not giving away any of their mission, but hopefully giving her enough information to continue giving them information. "What do you mean, if you'd been born human? What are you?"  
  
"I don't know if you noticed, boy," Kane said. "But this," he held up a hand that slowly darkened until it was black and then whitened again. "Isn't exactly a normal skill."  
  
"So what are you?" Trowa asked quietly.  
  
"Weapons," Diana said with a shrug. "Genetically engineered since before our conception for fighting. Assassins, mostly, but the six of us in a regular fight together are pretty deadly. Stronger, faster, smarter than any human, both trained and engineered to have no emotions, no mercy, no regrets." Her expression mirrored something like sadness for a second before it disappeared. "That one didn't work so well, but they tried. And you... what is your story? Do they genetically modify and teach shooting to all kids in your world, or are you something special?"  
  
They didn't answer. Duo happed to be looking at the other Quatre right then, or he might have missed it, but suddenly something in the other boy changed, hardened somehow, and he suddenly looked very, very threatening. "We just risked our lives to get you out of there. More than that, we risked our freedom, and possibly the lives of thousands more. We told you more about ourselves just now then we've ever told anyone," he said quietly. "And we can't help you unless you give us some information. We also can't be sure that you are who you say you are unless you start talking. I'm very good at making people talk. I developed most of the methods that the Alliance uses."  
  
"You know we're telling the truth," Quatre said softly.  
  
His double refused to look at him. "Unfortunately, my own empathy is not reliable enough for me to trust on something like this. I know that you have similar skills, and I can't be sure that you aren't influencing me somehow." He looked around the room, and his gaze rested on Duo. "That one," he said quietly. "I'll work on him first."  
  
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Duo demanded as Kane grabbed his arm and twisted it up behind him, and then pushed him against the wall.  
  
"I'm getting some answers," the other Quatre said quietly as the others all immobilized their doubles among the Gundam pilots, all except Quatre, who was being held by Diana, and Wufei, who was still unconscious.   
  
"How long?" grunted the one who was holding Heero as the other Quatre pulled out a vial of some clear liquid and a needle. "He's pretty strong."  
  
Duo yelped and tried to pull away, and almost got his shoulder dislocated for his efforts.  
  
"I don't know, it depends. We don't know much about them. A few hours, maybe."  
  
Diana shook her head. "This one lasted for hours in the chamber."  
  
Quatre's double blanched slightly. "Then it may take longer." He filled the hypodermic needle with the liquid and then approached Duo. "Sorry, nothing personal," he said quietly, and Duo knew in a panicked flash that there was something very, very wrong with this Quatre, like their Quatre on the Zero System, and that he had told the truth - it really was nothing personal to him, and that he would torture him even if he regretted it, and do it well.  
  
"Wait! Stop!" Quatre shouted, and his double hesitated.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You may not trust yourself, but I do," Quatre told him. "My name is Quatre Ribaber Winner. My father was head of the Winner Corporation before he was killed by our own people. I have twenty-nine sisters..."  
  
"He hasn't told us anything about his mission or why they're so strong yet," his double observed.   
  
Quatre swallowed, looking at Duo. "I'm a Gundam pilot," he finally said.  
  
"Quatre, no!" Duo hissed, then was cut off when his double locked a hand around his throat, threatening to cut off his air supply.   
  
"Gundam?" his double said thoughtfully. "What's a Gundam?"  
  
"You don't know what a Gundam is?" Trowa asked disbelievingly.  
  
"I wouldn't be asking if I knew," Quatre's double said coldly. "What is it?"  
  
"A type of mobile suit, made from gundanium," Quatre said.  
  
Their doubles exchanged a glance. "Mobile suit?"  
  
"You don't have mobile suits?" Duo asked. "How the hell do you fight?"  
  
"Usually guns, explosives, occasionally shuttles or satellites," Diana said with a slight twist of her lips that might have been considered a smile. Maybe.   
  
This really is a different world, Duo thought, trying to imagine fighting a war without mobile suits. Sure, they did their share of terrorist work outside of their suits, but they wouldn't have gotten anywhere without the Gundams.  
  
"How did you end up here? And why were you genetically altered?" the other Quatre asked. "I'll warn you now, I'll know if you're lying to me."  
  
"We were supposed to gather information on a device Oz was making that was supposed to be able to manipulate the fabric of space itself, except it wasn't supposed to work. We got into the base, but then there was a flash of light, and... then we were here."  
  
"That sounds about right," Diana said grimly, not loosening her hold on Quatre's arm in the slightest. "And the other?"  
  
"We all went through... special training in order to be able to pilot our Gundams. A Gundam puts more stress on the body then any normal suit, trying to fly them at full potential would have killed normal humans."  
  
"And who's this Oz you're fighting?" Kane asked.  
  
"Its an Earth-based military organization that's taken over the colonies. We're trying to win our freedom."  
  
Diana looked at Quatre's double, who nodded, and suddenly Kane released Duo's arm. Duo instantly responded with a punch, but his double blocked it easily, then gave him a shove that sent him flying. "I wouldn't try it," he said grimly. "You may be stronger and faster than normal humans, but we were engineered. Completely engineered, not just normal humans improved upon. You wouldn't have a chance, and you might hurt your fist if you ever hit me." He suddenly grinned.  
  
"That's impossible," Wufei's double said, examining the still-unconscious Wufei. "They can't be colonists."  
  
"They were telling the truth," Quatre's double said.   
  
"But how can that be?"  
  
"Maybe things are different in their world."  
  
"Hey, wait a minute! No apology? And why can't we be colonists?" Duo demanded.  
  
"Sorry," his double said, sounding completely unapologetic. "And you're colored."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Skin tones," Kane clarified, rolling his eyes. "Boy, you are slow, aren't you? You're not albinos."  
  
"So? What does that have to do with it?"  
  
"All colonists are albinos."  
  
"What? No they aren't."  
  
"They are here," Diana said, tilting her head to one side as she looked at him. "All the original colonists went through some gene therapy to allow them to survive better on other worlds - better use of oxygen, slightly stronger and faster, not as much as you and nowhere near us, but more than normal humans. One of the side effects was that they all became albinos. I take it that it's different where you're from?"  
  
"Colonists look just like regular people," Duo stated, then realized how that must have sounded. "I mean..."  
  
"He's almost as polite as you, Kane," Wufei's double observed. "And here we call people who look like you Earthlings." He checked on Wufei. "He ought to wake up in a few minutes. I didn't hit him that hard."  
  
Duo snorted. "You must have hit him pretty hard, if you knocked him out. Wufei's got a hard head. Why'd ya do it, anyway? Was it all his talk about weak women?" he grinned. "'Cause if it was, I've got to warn you, he never stops. Weak women and justice, that's his entire repertoire."  
  
"It wasn't that," Diana said with a glance at Wufei's double, who actually blushed a little. "We didn't have any time to waste, and besides, he's a little sensitive about that topic. Maybe because he believed women were useless for the first fourteen years of his life. The Alliance taught him that. I've since educated them otherwise," she added with a toss of her head that sent her braid flying.   
  
Suddenly Wufei grunted and opened his eyes. His eyes grew very, very wide as he saw his double. "What..."  
  
"You're in a different dimension," Diana said quickly. "As far as we can tell, they're your doubles - who you might have been if you'd been born here. And we seem to be on the same side, at least for now.  
  
"Oh, by the way, that's Shin," she pointed at Wufei's double. "You've already met Kane. Brian," she nodded at Heero's double, who stared at them with no expression on his face. Big change there. "That's Devin," she nodded towards Trowa's double, who didn't seem to like blinking. Big change there too. "He's Andrew," she said, her eyes resting on Quatre's double. "And my name, as you've probably guessed, is Diana."  
  
"Diana what?" Quatre asked. "Don't any of you have last names?"  
  
"As a matter of fact, we don't," Andrew told him. "We picked our own names when we were ten. There was no need to pick last names. One was enough."  
  
"Her too?" Quatre asked. "I felt something..."  
  
"I have a number of names. One of them is Diana Dorlian," she said with a slight shrug. "But, as I said, I go by a number of different names. I think of myself as Diana."  
  
"Dorlian!" Heero grunted in surprise.   
  
Duo stared at Diana, who had the same last name as a certain irritating princess of a lost kingdom back in his own dimension. Now that he looked for it, there were certain similarities in features between Diana and Relena Peacecraft, although without a doubt Diana was more beautiful. Nah, it couldn't be, he found himself thinking, and shook his head. They couldn't be the same person. Relena was a whiny brat - an influential whiny brat, to be sure, and she was good at the whole 'peace' thing, but still... He couldn't possibly by thinking that she and this soldier girl were the same person!  
  
"What is it?" Kane asked, looking at his face.  
  
"She just... it has to be a coincidence, doesn't it?"  
  
"What?" Wufei asked crossly. His eyes were still a little wild as he stared at his double.  
  
"It may be just me," Duo said, stepping back slightly to get a better look at her. "But does she look a little bit like an irritating Princess we know?"  
  
Quatre gasped. "It can't be!"  
  
Heero grunted again. "They don't look the same," he observed. "Not like us."  
  
"Don't look the same as who?" Diana asked sharply.  
  
"There's this girl. Her named used to be Relena Dorlian, but now it's Relena Peacecraft... She looks a little bit like you... But it couldn't mean... Her name wasn't really Dorlian, she was adopted," Duo finished lamely.  
  
"And what makes you think I wasn't?" Diana asked, a hint of pain in her eyes. "All six of us were created, not born. I couldn't possibly be his natural daughter, since I have no parents. I sort of wondered who I'd be on your world. Who is this girl?"  
  
"She is... was... the princess of a destroyed kingdom," Quatre said. "Her father... her adopted father, Ambassador Dorlian, was assassinated by Oz just before the beginning of the war, and that's when she found out her true identity. Since then she's been... well, she has been traveling around for a while, and now..." he shrugged. "Her kingdom was destroyed many years ago, but she still has a lot of influence. And she keeps chasing Heero all over the planet." He grimaced.  
  
"Heero, huh?" Diana said, and Duo realized - too late to do anything about it - that they'd accidentally given away another name. "I take it he isn't interested?"  
  
Heero snorted his opinion of that.  
  
"My name's Duo, by the way," he said, to prove that he didn't care if he'd given away information. "Duo Maxwell. That's Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton, and Chang Wufei," he said, pointing at each in turn, ignoring the glares he was getting from Wufei.   
  
"Real names," Shin murmured.   
  
"What do you mean, real names?" Wufei asked crossly, still angry about being knocked out.   
  
"They don't sound like names you just picked out for yourselves," he clarified. "They sound like you have families, or pasts..."  
  
"Heero Yuy is a code name," Heero said in a low, threatening voice. "The real Heero Yuy was a peaceful man who tried to unite the colonies before he was assassinated."  
  
"And I am not really Trowa Barton," Trowa said. "I took his name after he was killed."  
  
"And I made up my own name," Duo added. "I'm just a street rat."  
  
"Beginning to sound more like us every second," Kane said with a smile that Duo knew was meant to hide the pain. He'd worn it himself often enough. "You know your name means 'two', don't you?"  
  
"Yeah, I sorta did that on purpose. I'm not stupid."  
  
Kane nodded, looking uncomfortable. "I know. I was just... why would you do that?"  
  
"Solo. I once knew a kid named Solo, who did me some favors, so when he died, I became Duo," Duo said shortly. "What's your problem?"  
  
"It just... numbers. We hate numbers."  
  
"What?"  
  
"They called you eight, before," Quatre said suddenly, "And they called me four. Why?"  
  
Diana sighed. "There were originally ten of us. So we each had numbers. Five boys, five girls. I would have been number eight, but they didn't want the girls, so they tried to get rid of all of us. They only kept the males, numbers one through five..." she trailed off, looking at Kane, whose face was a stony mask.   
  
"The Alliance raised us," Andrew, Quatre's double, clarified. "And they only called us by our numbers, they never bothered to give us names. They though it would convince us that we weren't human, that we were only tools that they created. We gave ourselves names around our tenth birthday." He shrugged. "So we're just a little sensitive about being called by numbers."  
  
"That's why Treize... the one who looks like Treize... was so surprised when I didn't react when he called me Four," Quatre mused.  
  
"Treize?" Andrew looked at Diana.  
  
"Velanz. Apparently they have someone like him in their world. But you responded to it very easily," she said to Quatre.  
  
"We've been captured a few times before," he said sheepishly. "They don't know our names, so they call us by numbers, the order our Gundams showed up in. They call me 04." He shrugged. "It's better than them knowing our names." Suddenly he frowned. "Did you say you were raised by the Alliance?" he asked. "Aren't they your enemies? That would be like... like us being raised by Oz." He shuddered.  
  
"It wasn't particularly pleasant for us, either," Kane snapped.   
  
Quatre suddenly grasped at his heart. "What did they do to you?" he asked hoarsely, drawing closer to Trowa for comfort. Trowa silently reached out and arm and pulled Quatre closer to him.   
  
Diana stared at him for a second, then sighed again. "Let's get the whole story out now, or at least the short version of it, it will cut down the time we'll spend later. The Alliance military is in control of most of Earth and all of the colonies, which they want because of the resources we have that aren't available on Earth. They're controlling the colonies by the most brutal means possible, so Rebel groups have sprung up in the last fifty years to oppose them. For many years they were completely ineffectual, but as the actions of the Alliance against the colonies became worse, the Rebels became more popular, and effective. The Alliance started a number of programs to counter this, and one of them was the project that created us. The Alliance wanted, well, the simplest way to put it is that they wanted weapons that looked like humans. So they got some scientists together, took some human DNA, and basically created ten fetuses from that. The fetuses would be much stronger, much faster, much smarter than any normal human, and instantly aware."  
  
"Aware?" Duo asked.  
  
"We never grew up," Diana said with a twisted smile. "We were mature as we were going to get by the time we were born. I quite clearly remember being adopted."  
  
Duo snorted. "So what? I remember when people tried to adopt me."  
  
"But were you three weeks old? That's how old I was. Anyway, they also did some delightful things with the way our emotions were connected to the logic centers in our brains. They wanted ten males, but one of the doctors who was forced to work on the project disagreed with what they were doing, so she made half of the fetuses female. Likewise, they made us look like colonists because they thought it would be a way to control us - colonists are instantly identifiable and very mistrusted on Earth. The same doctor who made me female gave us the ability to do this," she held up a hand which turned black, then faded to white again. "It doesn't affect our eyes, but a simple pair of contact lenses takes care of that.   
  
"So, she made these changes, but they weren't noticed until we were taken out of the incubation chambers. The Alliance didn't want the girls, so they gave us to a lower-level functionary with orders to get rid of us. He felt guilty killing what he thought were a bunch of harmless infants, so instead of killing us, he gave us to an orphanage. In a few days I was adopted by Ambassador Dorlian. A few days after that the higher-ups at the Alliance found out that we hadn't been killed, and the other four females were killed. They would have killed me, too, but there was too much publicity surrounding my adoption, so they covered it up instead and left me alive."  
  
"Sloppy," Heero remarked.  
  
"Very," Diana replied. "But they've come to regret it. I grew up in a relatively normal home environment, but I always knew I was different. By the time I was four I was taking college courses, and I knew that I never forgot anything. When I was seven I was hit by a car, and I walked away from the accident. That was about the time that I started feeding information to the Rebels."  
  
Duo was impressed in spite of himself. "You started early."  
  
Diana shrugged. "It's what I was created for. The fact that I was working against my creators was ironic, but I do my work very well. I continued that work for three years, mostly hacking into the Alliance's computers and feeding the Rebels information, but about when I turned ten, something changed. The Alliance decided to activate these guys. You see, while I'd grown up in a semi-normal environment, they'd been raised by Alliance doctors who told them that they weren't human, they had no emotions, and that their only purpose was to serve the Alliance. They'd had combat training for years, and ten-year-olds make astonishingly good assassins, because no one would suspect a kid of anything like that. The first time I ever found out that there were others like me was when he..." she pointed at Brian, "... assassinated my best friend's father. Suddenly there were people as fast and as smart as me working against me, so I joined the Rebels officially, when I was ten. By the time I was twelve, I was in command of all the Rebels in my colony, working almost full-time against them. I kept going to school as Diana Dorlian, so no one would suspect who I really was, but the rest of my time I spent working for the Rebels. But by the time I was fourteen, I realized that I couldn't possibly keep up with these guys indefinitely. There were five of them, and one of me. Plus, the Alliance has virtually unlimited resources, while I was acting like a supercomputer half the time because the Rebels couldn't afford decent machinery. So I did the only thing I could think of. I captured Brian, showed him how the Alliance had been lying to him, and brought him over the my side. Then we did the same for the others. That's the short version of how we came to be fighting where we are now."  
  
"And the numbers?"  
  
"They only called us by numbers for the first ten years of our lives. When we completed our first official missions, around the age of ten, we picked names for ourselves, as a sort of symbol of our new status," Andrew said. "But when we worked for the Alliance, on missions, we were only allowed to use our numbers. Since then we never use them, and we don't respond to them either. You probably surprised them when you answered to numbers so easily. To us it represents them trying to take away our humanity."  
  
"We just didn't want them to know our names," Duo said. "Especially Quatre, 'cause he's got family in the colonies."  
  
Quatre's face darkened slightly. "My father all but disinherited me when I left to join the fight - he was a pacifist," he explained shortly. "But I don't know if any of that would have made a difference if Oz found out. Actually, it didn't matter. They killed him anyway."  
  
"I'm sorry," Diana said quietly, and Quatre's hand went to his chest again.  
  
"Yes, I know. There's so much pain... what happened to your father?"  
  
Diana's face was completely emotionless. "I got captured, and they found out who I was. They killed my father before anyone could do anything about it, in order to punish me. Rather foolish of them, actually. It would have been wiser to keep him alive and try to force information out of me that way." She said all of this in completely flat tones, much the way Heero spoke most of the time. Suddenly she looked at Quatre. "How long have you been able to do that? Sense people's emotions, I mean."  
  
"I've always been able to do it, but it's getting stronger, I think. How about you?" Quatre asked, directing his question at his double.  
  
"I... I've always had it, but the Alliance... they tortured me when I used it when I was younger. I could feel what humans were feeling, and I wasn't supposed to feel anything at all. So I sort of pushed it back down where it wouldn't affect me anymore, and I forgot about it until after I joined Diana. It re-emerged when she was captured and tried to kill herself - I felt that even though we were miles apart." His hand drifted to his own stomach.  
  
"You tried to kill yourself?" Quatre gasped in horror, and everyone glanced involuntarily at Heero. Most of them had tried to self-destruct at one point or another, but only Heero made a habit of it.  
  
"I'm not suicidal or anything, but faced with death or betraying everything I'd spent more than half my life building, I chose death. It didn't work, anyway." Heero made a vague sound of disapproval, and she glared at him. "It's rather difficult to aim a gun at yourself with those damn cuffs on your wrists. Other people, yes, but its very difficult to hurt yourself. Which is the idea. It's hard to get answers out of a corpse, so they wanted me alive. It bought me a few weeks, anyway, while I was healing. These guys eventually rescued me."  
  
"Now, what is your story?" Brian asked grimly.   
  
"I see your Heero talks as much as ours does," Duo remarked.   
  
-------------------------------------------  
  
It was several hours before Diana's curiosity was satisfied, and by then Quatre was getting very tired. He couldn't remember the last time he's slept, real sleep, not the drugged stupor they'd been in when they were tossed in the cell. Ten hours before the mission they'd begun against Oz, the one that had gotten them tossed here. And then he'd spent those hours in that room... he shivered. He was exhausted, but he wouldn't let it show.   
  
At least, that was what he intended, but his double, Andrew, took one look at him, and he felt that odd twinge in his heart that he'd first felt when he met Andrew. Andrew frowned. "Quatre's near collapsing," he said. "They put him in the chamber... and he hasn't slept in over a day. He thinks he's you, Brian," he said with a fond smile, and Quatre smiled in return. He was strangely at ease with his double, as if they'd known each other all their lives, although they'd just exchanged stories. Like the brother I never had.  
  
"I'm fine."  
  
"No, you're probably all exhausted," Diana said. "Sorry, I forgot. You're so much like us..."  
  
"What, don't you sleep?" Wufei asked sarcastically. He hadn't grown any more friendly, either towards her or towards his double in the last several hours.  
  
"An hour or two a day is usually sufficient - we're a little more efficient in our rest than most people, and we can go for weeks without sleep if we have to, if we aren't too stressed. You shouldn't take offense - you're astonishing, for humans, we just aren't human." Wufei didn't look any happier. "Look, you guys might as all sleep now, get a few hours at least. Things are going to get interesting when we get back."  
  
"Why?" Duo asked.  
  
"Well, you guys for one thing. I've also been out of contact for a little too long, and..." she glanced at Brian, who grunted.  
  
"She ordered a raid staged at another base to distract from our original mission, and we did the same thing at a different base to get her - and you guys - out of there. She has to deal with those reports, and knowing her, she'll want to do the prop work herself... Then she - and we - will be playing catchup for a long time. It isn't often that we all are out of contact for more than an hour or two."  
  
"Why is she so important?" Wufei asked huffily.  
  
"She's our commander, I thought you knew that," Andrew looked mildly surprised, and a little amused too.  
  
"Only weaklings follow women," Wufei sniffed.   
  
"Are you saying we're weaklings?" Shin asked, a dangerous look in his eyes.  
  
"You're following a woman, aren't you?"  
  
"Hold it!" Diana exclaimed, obviously seeing the same fight brewing that Quatre did. "Why, exactly, do you think women are weak?" she asked Wufei.  
  
"Oh great," Duo muttered. "Got a free day or two? That was the wrong question to ask him."  
  
"Women don't have the strength to do what's necessary," Wufei started. "They can't win without help, and those near them get hurt as a result."  
  
Kane started laughing. "That's rich!" he exclaimed. "You think she's weak?" He burst out laughing again.   
  
"All women are weak," Wufei insisted.   
  
"Physically, you might be correct, maybe," Diana said. "I don't know what sort of women you deal with, but the women I deal with are all every bit of intelligent, resourceful, and when the time comes, ruthless, as any man. Many of them are physically stronger, as well. And as for me..." she smiled wickedly. "I actually had a discussion with one of the scientists who created me on this very subject. Because, in general, women are physically weaker, they've evolved differently. Our minds are more subtle, and we're trickier. Or so I've been told."  
  
"She's only proved it a couple dozen times," Shin muttered.   
  
"Anyway, in me those evolutionary changes remain, but the reason for them - that women are physically weaker - was eliminated. I'm stronger, physically, than any normal human, including yourself, smarter, and faster, and I'm ruthless too, don't worry about that part. I'm also a lot more devious than my male counterparts, and that's why I've survived as long as I have." Then, smiling sweetly, she walked across the room, grabbed the front of Wufei's shirt with one hand, and without any sign of effort, she lifted him off the floor.   
  
"Try me, sometime," she said quietly. "I'm quite willing to prove my strength to you the same way I did to Shin - by beating the crap out of him. A bit brutal, with none of the subtlty that I usually expect of myself, but if I survived such crudity before, I'll somehow manage again." She smiled sweetly again, and set Wufei down on the ground.   
  
"Trust me, you don't want to do that," Shin advised. "I was a bit... difficult... when I first was captured."  
  
"Yeah, well, lets be fair, I wasn't in a particularly good mood myself. I didn't really help things. I was still pissed at him for shooting me," Diana said apologetically. She smiled consolingly at Shin.   
  
"See, Heero?" Duo exclaimed. "I told you we weren't the only people in the world who met when one shot the other!"  
  
"We're in a different world," Heero observed. "There is no one else in the world."  
  
"Anyway, anyone who was not genetically engineered should go to sleep now," Diana suggested, cutting their bickering short.   
  
Trowa immediately settled himself to the floor, then looked at Quatre, who smiled. Trowa must be feeling very comfortable around these people, or he wouldn't show so much, Quatre thought. He settled himself on the floor and lay back against Trowa's chest, giving him a quick kiss on the way before getting comfortable. Trowa started gently stroking his hair. It felt really good, and Quatre allowed himself to relax into the caress. It was the first time he really felt like he could relax in the longest time - this was the first place that they could be absolutely certain that Oz couldn't find them. Oz didn't exist here. He smiled.  
  
Then he felt a wave of surprise from someone nearby, and opened his eyes to find himself staring at two very wide eyes, belonging to his double. "The two of you..." Andrew trailed off, then a small smile appeared on his face, and he chuckled to himself.  
  
"Do you have anyone..." Quatre trailed off, and looked at Devin, Trowa's double, expectantly.   
  
"Devin has always tried to protect me, even when he brought punishment down on himself for doing it, and I love him like a brother, but we're not... involved that way," Andrew said with no hint of embarrassment. He looked at Diana who walked over and gave him a very thorough kiss, leaving no doubt as to who he was currently involved with.   
  
"Andrew... is the most human of us," Diana said with a sigh when they broke off for air, several minutes later. It seemed that they had advantages in more than one field. "And what does that say about me? At least I was raised human, but I'll take a life as quickly as anyone. Andrew's the only one who tries to avoid killing. I can't really imagine what he sees in me."  
  
Andrew turned Diana's face towards his, and his lips moved silently. Quatre knew how to read lips, but he averted his eyes, sensing that this was something intensely private.  
  
"Oh man, you guys too?" Kane asked, looking at where Heero had a firm grip on Duo's braid and was pulling him to the floor. "Doesn't that hurt your head?"  
  
Duo shrugged, then let out a yowl of pain. "Ow! Cut it out, Heero! It's not so bad. There are advantages, you know." He leered at his double, leaving no doubt as to his intentions. "How about you guys? I mean, Andrew's with Diana, but there are four more of you..."  
  
"We don't have that sort of relationship," Shin said primly.   
  
"We might have, though, if Diana hadn't come for us," Devin said suddenly.  
  
"What?!" Kane turned to look at the other boy. "What do you mean?"  
  
"We were designed to be physically attractive," Devin pointed out with a shrug. "It wasn't just so that we'd look nice for the scientists. Eventually we would have used our looks to our advantage in a mission. We looked like children when we left the Alliance - no one would have wanted to sleep with us. Not yet, anyway. They probably would have started that training a few years later." He shrugged again. "Who do you think we would have been practicing on? Not the scientists. Besides, it probably would have fallen into the realm of stress relief."  
  
His comrades stared at him, and then Kane turned to Diana. "Did I mention how much I really appreciate you getting us away from the Alliance? I might have gotten stuck with Brian." He shuddered dramatically.  
  
"Hey!" Duo protested as Heero glared at Kane. "Are you saying that there's something wrong with us?"  
  
Kane shrugged. "I never thought of it, to tell you the truth. I was just trying to piss off Brian. He never says *anything*."  
  
"I know the feeling," Duo said, turning his head quickly to get his braid out of Heero's reach as he grabbed for it again. Then he settled down on the floor, laying his head on top of Heero's stomach. "How many times to I have to tell you, Heero, that you've got to put some fat on your bones?" he complained loudly. "This is like having a piece of gundanium for a pillow."  
  
"Back to the point - you guys had better rest now, if you're planning on sleeping at all," Diana said again.   
  
"Yes mam!" Duo saluted facetiously. He probably said more, but Quatre's exhaustion finally overcame him and he fell asleep.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
About four hours later, Heero heard a footstep somewhere near him. Without thinking about it, he drew the gun he'd stashed in the back of his pants, aiming it at the source of the sound. He opened his eyes and saw Kane standing there, a gun also drawn. "So, are we going to shoot each other and die cursing our families for the stupid feud?" Kane asked. "Do you always greet people this way?" he asked, slipping his own gun into a holster under one shoulder.   
  
"Hn," Heero replied, putting his own gun away.   
  
"Hi, Kane," Duo said, sitting up and blinking sleepily. That was just an act. Heero had felt Duo tense when he moved to draw his gun, and saw that Duo's hand was pressed against his stomach, holding his own weapon.   
  
"Hey. Your Heero isn't a morning person, is he?"  
  
"Not especially. Why'd you ask?"  
  
"The 'hn' sort of gave it away."  
  
"Oh, that's normal for him. But you're right he isn't a... ow!" Duo shouted as Heero clamped down on his braid again.   
  
"We'll be arriving in just a few minutes," Kane told him. "Wake up the rest of your friends. You can come up to the cockpit if you want."  
  
"We're awake," Quatre said, sitting up and blinking sleepily. "How long?"  
  
"Just a few minutes," Kane said, casting a sharp look around the room at the obviously-awake Gundam pilots. "Did I wake you?"  
  
"Live on the run long enough and you'll learn to sleep light, too," Quatre said, half-joking. "The cockpit?"  
  
"Thought you might want to get a glimpse of the colony before we land. Our colonies aren't located in outer space, floating around a planet. Our colonies are actually on other planets."  
  
"You never mentioned how that was possible, or what planet they're on," Quatre remarked, standing up and stretching.   
  
"The sub-ether drives," Kane said in tones that suggested that Quatre was stupid for asking. Seeing their blank looks, he said, "Faster than light travel? Please tell me you have that at least."  
  
"Not yet. Our world has been a little engrossed with war for the past two hundred years, so we're not all we could be technologically," Duo snapped.   
  
"Two hundred years?" Kane asked. "Fuck." He was silent for a minute, then regained his composure and good-humor. "Well, are you coming or not?"   
  
They came. Heero heard Quatre's soft gasp as they entered the cockpit, where Brian had his hands on the controls of a very awkward shuttle and was guiding it across the surface of a planet with bright reddish rocks and two suns hanging in the sky. "Man," Duo muttered quietly, looking at the twin suns. "We really are on another world, aren't we?"  
  
Kane snorted. "Nothing gets by you."  
  
Heero turned to glare at this more openly cynical version of his koi, but was distracted when Duo snaked his arms around Heero's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder. "Never thought that we'd be the first from our planet to be on another world, huh?" he murmured.  
  
"Hn."   
  
"You'd better hang on. It gets tricky up here," Diana murmured, taking a firm grip of a handhold bolted to the ceiling. Heero looked around and grabbed onto another handhold, after checking to make sure that Duo had done the same. Just in time, it turned out, as Brian began maneuvering madly to avoid hitting rocks as they flew through a deep canyon.   
  
"Um," Duo said after a particularly sharp turn had almost tossed slammed him into the wall. "I don't mean to question your motives, but is there a reason that we can't go onto the surface? The flat surface?"  
  
"We have to stay down here to avoid their scanners," Diana replied, her eyes fixed on some screens in front of Andrew. "If any unauthorized ships try to get to the dome, the Alliance blasts them. We've got another way in that doesn't require us to go up to the surface, but we can only get there through here."  
  
"Oh. Makes sense to me!" Duo said cheerfully.  
  
After several minutes of rough maneuvering, Brian stopped the ship. "Are they ready for us?" he asked Andrew.  
  
"Transmitting codes now," Andrew said formally. A few seconds later a large rock in front of them suddenly swung away from the cliff face, revealing a set of doors behind it. The doors slid sideways, revealing a large docking bay behind it, and Brian easily guided the shuttle into it, then settled it onto the floor beside two other shuttles the same size. There was a loud metallic clang as the doors closed behind them.  
  
"Beginning shutdown procedures," Brian reported.  
  
A second later Andrew took off the headset he'd been wearing and said, "They're repressurizing the bay. Everyone will be in as soon as it's safe."  
  
"Oh, well," Diana sighed. "My vacation was nice while it lasted."  
  
"You were on vacation and you cut it short to do a mission?" Duo asked. "That's cold."  
  
"I was talking about the eight hour ride back in the shuttle," Diana said with a weary smile. "That's the longest uninterrupted period of inactivity I've had since we freed Alpha colony. It was nice."  
  
"You mean you haven't had a day off in months?" Duo asked, then shuddered.  
  
"I'm the Tiger. There's no one else who can do the things that I can."  
  
"What about them?" Wufei asked with a frown at the thought of a woman being able to do things men couldn't. He jerked his head at his double.  
  
"They can do the same things as I can, but my people trust me, and I've got a reputation so that other people in the colonies will listen to me and trust me. That is the person they can't do without, and it keeps me pretty busy. It's not so bad. I got used to it after the first couple of years."  
  
"Years?" Duo yelped, but Brian's unemotional voice cut him off.  
  
"Shutdown completed." He looked out through the window of the shuttle. "And here they come," he remarked in a less official tone.  
  
Heero looked up and saw a pair of doors at the opposite end of the large bay open and people came streaming in, dozens, maybe hundreds of them, and he was startled to see Diana sigh, straighten her shoulder, and murmur, "Are you guys ready?"  
  
"After you, fearless leader," Kane said with an elegant bow.  
  
"I'm going to get you for that, one of these days," Diana muttered, but there was a slight smile on her face as she walked past them. "Stay in here until things calm down a bit. We need to explain things to them before you show your faces, or this could get... interesting."  
  
"Interesting the good way or the bad way?" Duo asked before Heero could grab his braid and silence him.   
  
"Figure it out for yourself. I'm sure you're a smart boy," Diana said patronizingly before hitting the button that controlled the hatch. The door slid open, and a ramp extended to the floor. Diana stepped out onto it, and the crowd gathered at the bottom burst out cheering.   
  
As their doubles followed the girl down the ramp, Duo murmured, "Man, they're just like Quatre's people. They love her."  
  
"All those people following a woman," Wufei snorted.   
  
"I don't think I'd let them hear you say that," Duo muttered. "Most of them are armed."   
  
"Really?" Quatre leaned forward slightly and saw what Heero had already noticed and filed away in his mind - that fully half of the people down there, crowded around Diana and the others, were openly armed, and perhaps half of those remaining had suspicious bulges under their clothes.   
  
"Hey! Who are you?! Intruders!" someone shouted from the back of the shuttle. Heero spun and drew his weapon, aiming precisely for the forehead of the trembling teenager who held a shaking weapon trained (sort of) on them.   
  
"Heero don't!" Duo shouted right before he tackled him.  
  
"Baka!" Heero grunted as his shot went wide.  
  
"He's one of Diana's people!" Duo hissed. "You want to shoot one of her people?!"  
  
Heero considered, then grunted an affirmative. His instinct reaction when he'd heard the alarm was to shoot, but they didn't want to kill allies. "Get off me."  
  
Duo flashed him a worried look, but rolled off him.  
  
"Freeze," ordered a cold voice, as Heero looked directly into the barrel of a gun.   
  
"Shit," Duo muttered as Trowa raised his hands into the air.  
  
Heero blinked in surprise. The crazy mob that only a few seconds ago he would have sworn was completely uncontrollable had fallen completely silent, and there were at least a dozen people clustered around them, guns drawn. Just a few seconds earlier those people had been acting as if there wasn't a thought in their heads, and now they were acting like soldiers. Good discipline, he thought, mildly surprised, berating himself for underestimating the possible threat, and for not hearing that boy before he'd sounded the alarm.  
  
"So, which one of them do you think will shoot us first?" Duo asked as he backed up against the wall.  
  
  



	4. Part 3

Quatre took one look at the faces of the people around him, felt the depth of their hatred with his space heart, and began praying to Allah, not for a miracle, but for his companion's souls, because he was absolutely certain they were going to die. He was dimly aware of Trowa raising his hands in surrender, but if what he was feeling was accurate, they weren't going to stop because of a surrender. He felt the hate building around him to a point... and then... it froze. They were waiting for something... What?  
  
"Stop!" shouted a familiar face. "They're friends!"  
  
"Tiger?" one of the men asked uncertainly. "Stowaways?"  
  
"No," Diana replied, walking back up the ramp. The people parted to make way for her. "Guns down now," she said quietly, and surprisingly enough, the guns were lowered, but not put away. "They're not with the Alliance."  
  
A good deal of the hate abruptly disappeared, and Quatre sighed in relief. "Tiger..." one of the men started again.  
  
"I'm certain of it. I only asked them to remain in the shuttle because I wanted to explain first, so we could deal without the guns. Who was in the shuttle?" she asked, her voice dangerously low.  
  
"It... it was me, sir," the teenager came forward, saluting hesitantly. "My... my section head said to start refueling as soon as the ship came in. There was an odd reading in the third tank, so I climbed in the back to see if it was a faulty reading or a faulty valve. Then I saw them, and I called the alarm. I didn't realize... I'm sorry, sir."  
  
"No, you did nothing wrong, and you did a good job in getting the alarm off so quickly. Reactions like that could save lives. Good job."  
  
"Thank... thank you sir!" the boy stuttered, saluting again, and Quatre hid a smile. 'The boy' as he was thinking of him, was probably nineteen, older than anyone in their group, but inexperienced.  
  
"All right," Diana said, turning back to the crowd. "These are allies. These are Quatre, Heero, Duo, Trowa, and Wufei," she said. "My guests. No shooting them."  
  
Quatre would have laughed, but given the looks Diana was shooting in all directions, she wasn't joking.   
  
"Come on," she said to them, jerking her head and smiling at the crowd again. "All right, that's enough celebration for now. It's great to be back, but there's still a lot of work to be done." She gave a sharp nod, and then led the way to a door. It was an elevator - they went up three floors, then down a hall and past a guard into a room with a number of computers set into a large circular table.   
  
Another albino colonist with very long white hair was waiting inside, as were their doubles - how had they gotten up here so fast? The long-haired man smiled slightly. "That was a very impressive performance down there, but who are they really?"  
  
"Zechs!" Quatre gasped, recognizing the face and reacting before he remembered that the other man hadn't really been Treize, either.   
  
The Lightening Count's double raised an eyebrow and looked at Diana. "Are you going to tell me or not? Not all of use are geniuses, you know."  
  
Brian, who, along with the others, had seated himself at the table and was typing at the computer there, snorted.   
  
"They're from another world. A parallel dimension," Diana clarified. "They're who we might have been if we were born, not created. They're not exactly normal, either, though."   
  
"I guessed. When Tom got off the alarm, there was a shot zero-point-eight seconds afterwards. That's slower than you guys, but better than any of us. Who was it?"  
  
No one responded for a second, until it became clear that Heero was just going to sit and glare at the double of his longtime enemy, then Quatre cleared his throat and said, "That was Heero. He was only responding to the threat, though."  
  
"Heero, huh?" the man asked thoughtfully. "You don't look like one to miss."  
  
"I tackled him," Duo said helpfully.   
  
"Who are you?" Heero demanded.  
  
The man glanced at Diana for permission. "I'm Dev Carter."  
  
"Pleased to meet you," Quatre said, as the others responded in their own fashions, or didn't, if that was the case.  
  
"They're going to be staying with us until we figure out a way to get them back to their own world, do we have any free rooms?"  
  
"Only three."  
  
"Three? What happened?" she asked, a faint frown on her face.  
  
"While you were out of contact, we got last-minute notification of a strike. They took out Kansas."  
  
Diana's face drained of all emotion. "How many did we get out?"  
  
"Just over eight hundred. We've got them scattered all over the colony, for now."   
  
"What happened?" Quatre asked as he felt the pain that Diana wasn't letting showing on her face.  
  
"There are a number of small, food-producing domes all over the surface of the moon. When the Alliance wants to drive the price of food up, they destroy one of them," Diana said quietly. "They don't care much about what exposure to the vacuum will do to the inhabitants. Kansas was one of those colonies - there were just under a thousand people living there." For a second her face showed nearly unbearable grief, then it was gone. "I'm sorry, but four of you are going to have to share rooms."  
  
"That won't be a problem," Quatre said quickly.  
  
"I'll assign someone to guide you around the base for now. If you go out, you're going to have to pretend to be colonists. Earthlings... or people who look like Earthlings... stand out too easily up here. We can't let the Alliance know that we have a way in and out that they don't control. Understand?"  
  
They nodded, then the door opened and a young man stepped through. He didn't wear a uniform, but his bearing was distinctly military. "There's your guide," Devin said from his seat without looking up.  
  
"If you don't mind, could we stay and watch for a few minutes?" Quatre asked as a number of people filed in through the door. Most of them were colonists, of all ages, although it was a little hard to tell their ages with all that white hair. He smiled his most endearing smile, and Diana's eyes narrowed slightly, then she sighed.   
  
"Fine. Just stay out of the way. But I'll warn you before we start that you probably won't understand most of what we're talking about."  
  
Quatre shrugged.   
  
"I'd like to take a look around the base," Duo said cheerfully. "And the shuttles, if you don't mind?"  
  
"Fine. Just don't leave."  
  
"Come on Heero!" Duo cried, and took off at a run. Heero spared them all one last glare before following his partner, and after a moment's hesitation, Wufei followed him.   
  
The group of people who'd just filed in stared after them in shock, then turned their stares to Trowa and Quatre. "Who were they?" one asked, glancing at Kane. "Your evil twins?"  
  
-----------------------------------------  
  
Diana closed another file. There were only a few dozen left now. Then she could get onto the written and verbal reports. Now I remember why I never take vacations, she thought wearily.   
  
"Here," Quatre said, suddenly, and another file appeared on the computer. "We finished that analysis you needed done. Anything else?" he asked cheerfully, while she stared at him disbelievingly. It was impossible for any soldier to be this happy, wasn't it? Or this cheerful after five hours of labor.   
  
"No, you've already done far too much. You must be exhausted by now," she said, quickly checking over the data. It all looked fine, which was astonishing in itself. Humans weren't supposed to be able to perform these kinds of calculations.   
  
Earlier Duo had stuck his head in, observed what Quatre was doing, and muttered something about him being the tactical genius, then left. Diana resolved to find out exactly what he'd meant.   
  
He shrugged. "I guess we can go down to the shuttle bay and see how Duo's doing."  
  
"I thought they were going to sleep," she said, surprised.  
  
"That was over eight hours ago. Remember, Trowa and I went to sleep, and when we came back, you were still here working. You probably need to sleep now."  
  
"No, I'll be fine," she said, blinking as she realized that she'd been so engrossed with her work that she hadn't realized that so much time had passed, or that Quatre and Trowa had left and then returned. Careless. I must be getting sloppy in my old age, she thought with only a hint of irony.   
  
"Diana," Andrew said softly, and Diana turned slightly in her chair to look at him. He was wearing a tuxedo. "The limousine will be here in fifteen minutes."   
  
Limousine... Fuck! Diana exclaimed mentally as she remembered that she'd been held for a few days, and that today was the 14th. She jumped to her feet, but pain lanced up her broken leg, and she winced involuntarily. Damn those Alliance guards! Figures they'd break her leg before they tortured her. Figures they'd do it when she couldn't take any pain medication for fear that it might slow her thought processes and dull her senses. And, of course, none of the milder medications worked on her because of the way she'd been designed. Diana was in a very foul mood, and the thought of what was coming up next was not improving her mood any.  
  
At least Devin had brought along a medkit, so they'd been able to put a brace around it on the shuttle. Of course, all the running and fighting she'd done with the broken leg had not helped the injury, so she'd probably be a few extra days in recovering. A week or two, at most. Being a genetic weapon did come in advantage from time to time. Then she thought about the damned social event, and looked at Andrew. "Is it..."  
  
"Don't worry, it's one of those old-fashioned things, long dress and everything. You can wear the brace. I've taken care of it. Come on, we have to change before the limo arrives."  
  
"What's wrong with your leg?" Quatre suddenly asked from the doorway.  
  
Diana stepped into a small alcove that she used when she wanted to change quickly. Inside was mirror and a small table that she kept makeup and lenses on - everything she needed to look like almost anyone in just seconds. Today there was a beautiful dress, sparkling with various jewels, sitting in the corner, and she grimaced in distaste as she pulled the curtain closed behind her to provide herself with some modicum of privacy. A small colony could probably have been maintained for a week on what this dress cost, and she abhorred the waste, but if she wasn't wearing something like this tonight, no one would take her seriously.  
  
She quickly stripped and after checking to make sure that her knife was securely strapped to her thigh, pulled the dress over her head, for once grateful for whoever had started the hideous trend of having fashionable and wealthy girls wear these awful dresses again. Normally she hated them with a passion, but now this one was big enough to hide the thin brace on her leg. At least she wouldn't be walking around on an unsupported broken leg all night.   
  
"The Alliance broke it," she heard Andrew say as she quickly started brushing her hair out, eyeing her reflection in the mirror critically. Should she put it up or down? Up, she finally decided. It made her look a little older, and people equated age with wisdom and power, and she needed as much of both as she could manage.   
  
"When?"  
  
"Before they tossed her in with you."  
  
"But she was fighting... and running around..."  
  
"We can do that. We were designed that way. She's got a brace on it now, and she'll be fine in a few weeks."  
  
Diana finished putting her hair up into a neat bun on top of her head, and sprayed it with hairspray to make sure it stayed in place. You'd think with all they did when they were creating her that the scientists could have figured out a way for her to keep her hair in place without hairspray. She grabbed the jewelry Andrew had left out for her and quickly fastened the necklace behind her neck, put on the earrings, and slipped the bracelet on, each of them made of diamonds and probably priceless. Of course, that was assuming that Kane hadn't found a way to steal them and disguise the theft, which he probably had. Diana decided she didn't care.  
  
"But doesn't it hurt?" Quatre's voice drifted back to her.  
  
"So?"  
  
"But can't you do something for her? Shouldn't she be in bed?"   
  
"Probably, but she's got work to do tonight that only she can do, and painkillers might cloud her mind. We all know pain-suppression techniques, she'll be fine." Then, knowing that Diana would be listening in, he said, "You almost gave Hanna a heart attack. She thought she'd have to attend in your place tonight."  
  
Diana grunted as she carefully applied the light makeup that was considered appropriate for colonists. A foundation of whitish powder, that made her look even whiter than she usually did, a hint of the faintest blue over each eye, and very, very light pink on her lips. She set down her tools and eyed her reflection critically, then smiled experimentally to make sure all of her arsenal was in place. The image she saw in the mirror was good enough, she decided, although she'd have to make sure to smile in her eyes, too. A smile plastered onto a face with eyes that looked like they could shoot bullets was no good. She smiled once more into the mirror, and made sure her eyes reflected the emotion, even though this expression was just as calculated as the last. Better, she thought before jamming her feet into heels and pushing the curtain aside.  
  
As she stepped back into the command room, she got the distinct pleasure of seeing Quatre's jaw drop, and even Trowa looked a little surprised. Never thought we'd find someone who talked less than Devin, she mused to herself.  
  
"Six minutes, that's a new record," Andrew remarked.  
  
"Where are you going?" Quatre asked.  
  
"A social event being thrown by the most wealthy man in this colony. I'm going as a representative of the new government of Alpha, the colony we freed. That's my official position, and it ought to keep the two of us safe from the Alliance, at least for now. My unofficial job is to convince the very wealthy Mr. Muller to give quite a bit of money to the Rebels in this colony," Diana replied. She glanced at Andrew. "Are you ready?"  
  
"Why is he going?"  
  
"Andrew's been in contact with the man, and is going to introduce me. Come on, lets get to the shuttle bay."  
  
Diana was aware of Quatre staring at her as they walked back down to the bay. Of course the limo driver would be one of her people, in case something went wrong and they needed to get out of there fast. She'd also managed to get over a dozen of her people invited to the party under various fake names. She'd been captured once before, at another party, and was not about to repeat the experience. They reached the hanger a minute later.  
  
"Wow. Man, she really does look Relena," Duo said to Heero as Diana approached, and she noticed Heero's lips twitch downward. Something about her double on his world really had him irritated. "So, what's the occasion?" Duo asked cheerfully as she approached.  
  
"Mission. Going to get money to blow things up," she replied, straight faced.   
  
He stared at her for a few seconds, then she let her lips curl upward slightly, and he realized that she was joking. He immediately burst out laughing. "See? I told you she wasn't anything like Relena! That girl has no sense of humor."  
  
"It isn't often that I can find someone who appreciates my own unique brand of humor," she observed. "It's a pleasure to find someone so appreciative."  
  
"I think that was another joke," Duo exclaimed, looking like a kid who'd just stolen a piece of candy. "Two in under five minutes! Amazing! See, Heero, I'm not the only one who... ow!" he shouted as the blue-eyed pilot grabbed his braid and pulled hard. Diana hid a smile of her own. One of the doors leading to the dome's streets opened, and a limousine came in.   
  
"Six minutes early," Andrew noted, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Well, my lady?" he asked as his skin darkened slightly and his hair became a golden blond, as opposed to platinum.   
  
"What are you doing?" Quatre asked.  
  
"The man we're meeting thinks I'm an Earthling, a representative of the Rebels there. I don't think he'd be pleased if I suddenly became a colonist."  
  
"Your eyes..."  
  
"That's what these are for," Andrew replied, pulling a contact lens case out of his pocket. He held out his hand towards her, which she ignored. She'd have enough of this ridiculous posing before the night was over and didn't want to deal with it now. Andrew knew that, and he was just teasing her. He had the most subtle and odd sense of humor in almost anyone she'd ever met.   
  
She was about to climb into the vehicle when someone came running out into the hanger. "Andrew!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, panic in his voice.   
  
Diana froze. "What is it?"  
  
"There... there is a transmission, coming out of the base," the man gasped. "Transmitting our codes... and they're trying to take control of the satellites back! We need Andrew!"  
  
Diana froze. "Find the traitor, now," she ordered the people who had automatically gathered around them at the commotion, and several of them jumped to do exactly that. "And keep them alive, I want answers. Now." Her mind flew forward. Andrew was the best at computers - if the others were calling for him, the situation had to be really bad, perhaps unsalvageable. But if anyone could do it, it would be Andrew... but she needed him to introduce her, and they really needed this funding. So what? Risk everything they'd accomplished already by loosing the defensive satellites that orbited above Alpha, the only free colony, or risk the future of the rebellion by letting it run out of money?  
  
It only took Andrew a second longer than her to come to the same conclusion as her, and, of course, he turned to her for a decision. She was his commander, and all the decisions were always hers. But she didn't waste time on self-pity, even if she'd felt any, which she didn't. This was what she'd been designed for, and she was better at it than anyone else, although it was not something the Alliance had anticipated. Her mind flew ahead, sorting out data as quickly as any computer ever designed, shunting what twisted emotions she had off to one side while she analyzed her options.  
  
"Go," she ordered a few seconds later, pushing her frustration aside. Too many people had suffered and died to free Alpha to risk it now. If the Alliance got the satellites, Alpha would fall. "Get those damn computers back to working for us. And don't kill the traitor. I want to see them. Now. We'll just have to hope that Muller will take my word for it that I'm your contact."  
  
"Take him with you, if he'll go. There's an extra tux in the third room," Andrew said before he ran off.   
  
Diana stared in astonishment at Quatre, whose eyes widened perceptibly. There was the biggest difference between him and Andrew - how openly he showed his emotions. But then, Andrew had been tortured every time he showed his emotions, or even admitted that he had them, so it wasn't surprising that there was a difference. She looked at him. "Well?" she asked shortly, having no time to be more convincing or diplomatic.  
  
He glanced at Trowa, who stepped closer, offering silent support if he needed it, then at the others, who were silently gathering around him, aware of the tension but not the reason. They were ready to protect him, just the same as any of her five would protect the others.   
  
Quatre visibly swallowed, then stepped forward. "What do I have to do?" he asked quietly.   
  
Diana felt a flash of relief. "There's a tuxedo in that room," she pointed. "It ought to fit you - you're the same size as Andrew. Change and I'll explain on the way. All you have to do is introduce me."   
  
Quatre nodded nervously and darted into the room she'd indicated, closing the door behind him.   
  
"Where are you taking him?" Trowa asked quietly. Of course. He probably hadn't raised his voice above a loud whisper in years.  
  
"A party. He has to introduce me to a very wealthy man, and then behave himself for the rest of the evening without offending anyone or letting it slip that... has he ever been to Earth?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Good. That will make it easier. Don't worry. I won't let him get hurt."  
  
Trowa snorted quietly. "Quatre can take care of himself."  
  
Whatever she might have said was undiscovered, because Quatre opened the door and emerged, fully dressed, and Diana was impressed. Almost as fast as me. "Come on, or we'll be late. More than fashionably late."   
  
Quatre nodded and climbed into the waiting car.  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
I can't believe I'm doing this, Quatre thought as he climbed into the car. Diana managed to get in on her own despite the layers of material that made up to her skirt.   
  
"Thank you very much," Diana said quietly as the car started off. "You mentioned that your family was rich back on your world? So you know how to behave at formal occasions?"  
  
"Yes," he said, still wondering how he'd ended up on another world in a parallel universe and was now headed for a ball to pretend to be his double so he could help a rebel fight against yet another oppressive government organization.   
  
"Good. Now, look," she held out several pieces of paper. "This is Mr. Muller, he's the man you're going to introduce me to. All you have to do is say hi to him, introduce me as Diana Dorlian, and then make it through the rest of the evening without giving away that you're not Andrew, and that you're also not Kevin Jacobs, which is the name you'll be using. And try not to insult anyone especially important. Andrew has this delightful habit of finding the smartest people he can and pitching himself against them in verbal battles - please tell me you're not going to indulge in that idiocy."  
  
"No," Quatre said, surprised at her harsh language. He'd never speak that way about Trowa.  
  
"Surprised I'm such a bitch?" she asked, easily reading his emotions from his face. "Sorry to shatter your illusions about me, but I'm rather short tempered, and I've done some really horrible things without blinking. Like dragging you into this. Now look," she held out a piece of paper. "I hope you've got a good memory. These are all the people we'll meet, and a very, very basic overview of their loyalties. So don't go badmouthing the Alliance to anyone whose relatives work for them, or who have a lot of money tied up in them, because they'll inform on us. Got it?"  
  
Quatre nodded. "How long do I have?"  
  
"Forty minutes, approximately."  
  
Quatre swallowed and started looking over the list.  
  
Thirty-five minutes later, he closed his eyes and recited for Diana all the information she'd given him, hoping that he had it right. This was the third time they'd been through it, and if he didn't get it this time, they probably wouldn't have a chance to go through it again. When he finished, he opened his eyes and looked expectantly at her. Outwardly, her face was the same, but for someone as used to watching for Heero's changes in expression, she looked surprised. "You got 'em," she grunted, sounding a lot like Heero for a few seconds. "I didn't expect you to make it. Just try to keep them straight tonight."  
  
"It's not so different than memorizing all the subsystems of a Gundam," Quatre said with a nervous laugh.  
  
Diana shot him a strange look. "You are a very interesting man, Quatre," she said slowly, as if trying to dissect his mind from the outside. It wasn't a particularly pleasant experience, somewhat like taking his brain out of his head and leaving it in a sandstorm in the desert, but he knew she didn't mean anything bad by it, so he sat and suffered through her intense gaze. She's more like Heero then she wants people to think, he realized.  
  
Finally, when the silence became oppressive, Quatre said, "I'm not a man. I'm fifteen."  
"But you're not a boy, either. Not a child. No more than I am. I think I  
underestimated you guys," she said, and then turned her eyes away and sighed. "Here... there's one more..." she thrust a final piece of paper at him.  
  
Quatre looked at it and froze. It was the man who'd looked like Treize, who'd locked him in that room... he shuddered and automatically turned away from the memory of what had been done to him. "Why... why would..." he checked the name "Adam Velanz be there? If you're trying to get money for the... the rebels?"  
  
"People from both sides will be there. Supposedly I'm the representative of the new government in Alpha, and supposedly the Alliance is not controlling the colonies, and supposedly this colony is neutral, so the Alliance can't touch me. I'm a foreign dignitary. Everyone knows it's all just fiction, but it's a necessary fiction, so they can't touch me. Whether or not he'll be there is completely up to chance. It sort of depends on how angry he is with himself about our escape, and how much he wants to punish himself."  
  
"What?" Quatre asked, tearing his eyes away from the image of the man who looked like Treize but wasn't.   
  
"It pisses him off to see me free and know he can't do anything. If he wants to catch me, he has to do it the old-fashioned way. He had me once, completely at his mercy, and I still beat him. That pisses him off, too."  
  
"He had you?" Quatre asked. "When? How?"  
  
"Caught me at my fifteenth birthday party," she said with a shrug. "Held me for over five months. I managed to get into his head enough so that he couldn't break me. The guys eventually rescued me. We even freed the colony at the same time. Not a bad days work. It almost makes up for what I went through for those months." Her expression went vacant for a moment, until he touched her hand sympathetically. Then those white eyes hardened. "Anyway, if he shows up, don't worry. He can't do anything to us in this situation. Just maintain that your name is Kevin Jacobs and don't leave the party with him. Got it?" she asked as the car suddenly stopped.   
  
Quatre nodded, then automatically straightened his shoulders as a valet opened his door. He stepped out, then turned, placed his left arm behind his back and making sure that he looked neat, he bent forward slightly and extended his right hand back into the car to Diana. She placed her hand in his and then basically got out on her own. "You did learn well," she murmured through a smile. "Ready?"  
  
He smiled back and looked at the rather large building - mansion? - in front of them. "Of course."  
  
She slipped her arm through his, and they slowly walked up to the front door, using slow, measured paces, and he marveled at the emotions rolling off of her in well-timed waves. Anticipation, wariness, a hint of fear that disappeared almost as soon as he identified it, and a sort of fierce joy that disturbed her even as it confused him. Those were emotions he'd felt in himself and other previous to a battle, but not before a dinner party. Of course, sometimes more politics were decided in a situation like this than in any battle - unless Heero was involved. Then the battles were always the most important - things just seemed to revolve around Heero that way. But the guilt? That he couldn't understand. He promised himself he'd think about it more later, when his mind was not occupied with a few dozen faces that he was supposed to know well.  
  
Two men in uniforms opened the doors for them, and the light flooding outward from inside dazzled Quatre's eyes for a second, but Diana didn't hesitate, pulling him inside without giving his eyes a chance to adjust. He stumbled slightly on the doorframe, and Diana's very solid arm was the only thing that kept him from sprawling on the floor. "What's wrong?" she murmured.  
  
"Give my eyes a second to adjust," he murmured. This was one of the major disadvantages of coming from a people who'd lived in the desert for generations. The deserts were almost always blindingly bright, even at night, the faintest light from the moon reflected off the desert sand and made it bright enough to see by. Unfortunately, his eyes were weaker than many humans because of that - he had terrible night vision, and his eyes took longer to adjust to changes in light than most people's.   
  
"Sorry, I forgot you weren't him," she murmured. "You look so much like him, you even act like him..."  
  
"I'll take that as a compliment," he said, blinking several times as his eyes began to clear. He could see they were standing at the top of a staircase, and faintly, people moving around on the floor at the base of the staircase. Another minute and his eyes were completely recovered, and the figures below took on a crystalline clarity as the training he'd had as a Gundam pilot kicked in. Funny that the scientists could give him more than human eyesight but they couldn't fix the basic problems he'd been born with.  
  
"Ready?"  
  
"Fine," he murmured back, a proper expression automatically appearing on his face as he started down the stairs. He wasn't his father's heir for nothing, and had years of training with unsympathetic tutors before he became a Gundam pilot.  
  
"Then let's go. Give it about fifteen minutes or so before we go to Muller. Got it?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then here we go." They walked down the stairs. Almost the instant they reached the bottom, several people came up to them.  
  
"Mr. Jacobs, good to see you again," said a slimy-feeling man that his memory identified as Jules Alex, firmly allied with the Alliance. Very wealthy and powerful - and all of his wealth rested on the Alliance's buying his weapons and shuttles.  
  
"Good to see you too, Mr. Alex," he replied with a formal tilt of his head.  
  
"Now what did I tell you before, Kevin, there's no need for formality between us," he said with a leer at Diana. "And who is your lovely companion?"  
  
"My name is Diana Dorlian, Mr. Alex," Diana replied with a dazzling smile. She extended her hand towards the man, her manner showing none of the disgust and hatred that Quatre knew what she was feeling. He swallowed and clamped down on his emotions, trying to limit what he was feeling because of his spaceheart. He had enough to worry about without having to worry about the contradicting images he was getting from Diana.  
  
"Dorlian?" the man paused in the action of bending over to kiss her hand.   
  
"Yes. Perhaps you knew my father, Ambassador Dorlian. He was the Alliance's representative to Alpha colony, and died just a few months before... well, I am taking his place as Alpha's representative to the Alliance, only as an equal now, instead of a... protectorate."  
  
"Of course," the man murmured, dropping her hand and looking as though this was the last place on the planet he'd like to be.   
  
"I heard that your company lost quite a bit of money when Alpha declared independence," Diana remarked sweetly. "Allow me to offer my apologies. We never intended such a thing when we declared independence."  
  
"Quite all right, I'm certain," he responded nervously, glancing around. "These things happen. Only business." He almost choked on those last words. "Allow me to convey my condolences concerning your father's death."  
  
"Thank you very much, Mr. Alex." Diana smiled sadly and finally allowed the desperate Mr. Alex to back away. Quatre nearly laughed at how neatly she'd controlled that conversation. He almost wished he could see her in a verbal sparring match with the real Treize Khushrenada and see who came out on top. He had a feeling that it probably wouldn't be the Oz general.   
  
"Having fun?" she murmured as they started to drift around the room. "Me too. Just be careful. Most of them are pompous fools, but there are a few clever tricksters among them. Keep your eye out for them." Quatre had his eye on Diana's face, and was shocked to note that her lips didn't move at all as she spoke.  
  
"Ventriloquism?" he murmured, raising his hand to his mouth as if covering a yawn.  
  
"Far too many people are watching us, and some of them will know how to read lips," she replied, again without moving her lips. "I should have told you. Watch what you say. Nice move with your hand, by the way."   
  
He nodded and smiled slightly. "Who next?" he asked, extending his arm again.  
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
"Is she here?" Adam Velanz asked his aide.   
  
"Yes, she arrived an hour ago. We have a complete list of all the people she's talked with so far," his aide said, but he waved the offered file away.   
  
"I'll look at it later, although I doubt she'd be foolish enough to give away her contact with plain speech, or even by speaking to him for a long time. That is, if she even makes her contact." He smiled with satisfaction. He'd timed the strike against Alpha colonies satellites - the same satellites that had once belonged to the Alliance - with exact precision, to catch the Rebels just before this event. He knew that Four had been Diana's contact, and that he was the only one who could possibly fight off the Alliance's attack through the computers. By now the matter would have been decided, and the agent he'd sent in probably captured, but that didn't matter very much. The man was disposable, and he didn't have any information that they wouldn't figure out on their own in time. And in another way, the result of the attack on the system wasn't particularly important, either. The point of the entire exercise was to force the Tiger into making a decision between two bad choices, the colony she'd already freed or the future of this colony? He rather suspected that she'd left Four behind, making the same decision that he would have - protect resources already gained - but that meant that she couldn't make her contact here. Either way, he won.  
  
It shouldn't have come to this at all - Diana and those damned clones should never have escaped so easily. He was going to have words - many of them - with the station commander, but he probably wouldn't execute the man. He had been fooled himself by reports that the five creations were attacking the base where they were pretending to hold the girl. He should have realized that they wouldn't be fooled with a ploy like that, and had sent body doubles to the other area while coming in disguise to rescue her. Stupid on his part, but he'd activated this second plan almost as soon as he heard the news. Years of fighting again the Tiger, who was arguably the strongest leader that the Rebels had ever had, had taught him always to have a backup plan.   
  
"Sir, Four is with her," his aide said quietly.   
  
Adam raised his eyebrows in surprise. In that case, they might have already taken control of the satellites. She'd surprised him again, but she'd pay for it with the lives of those in the colony. "As soon as we get the satellites back online, tell them to signal the attack," he instructed.  
  
"Sir... we've lost control of the satellites completely, and the transmission from their base has ceased. We're locked out completely."  
  
Adam stifled a curse. Impossible! he thought. Four is the only one with the skill to get control of the satellites, and he didn't have time to do that and come here! There's no one else, so if he's here, who stayed behind... His mind suddenly jumped to the only logical conclusion, and now he did curse, once. Those damned clones! She must have brought one of them with her, and left Four behind! But who are they and how did she convince them to aid her? He went back over his last thought and dismissed it. She could be incredibly convincing when she wanted to, the main question was who those boys were and where they'd come from. He knew for a fact that the Alliance hadn't made them, and the rebels lacked the resources to start cloning, so it had to be a third party, but who...  
  
First things first - he had to make sure that this really was the other boy, and not Four. He thanked his aide for the information, gave him orders to continue the surveillance, and headed down to the party, making sure that his uniform was straight and his appearance as perfect as he could make it - no matter what he was doing down there, he never forgot that he was representing the Alliance every time he went out in this uniform, and that appearances could be very important. A few minutes later he was strolling around on the floor with the others, as comfortable here as if he'd been born to a position of power, instead of the son of an Alliance soldier and his wife, orphaned at a young age and raised by the Alliance.   
  
In a few minutes he walked over to where Diana and the boy were standing with a group of very wealthy businessmen, chatting about nothing. He waited several minutes before approaching them, watching the boy very closely. By the time he approached them, he was certain - the boy, whoever he was, was not Four. He had to be the clone that had escaped with Diana yesterday. A ghost of a frown crossed over his face as he realized that calling him 'the clone' wasn't exactly appropriate. This boy, unlike Four, had had a father, at least at some point. That didn't mean he couldn't be a clone, but he hadn't been raised at all like the other five. This could be interesting.  
  
"Hello, Kevin!" he exclaimed, walking over. He'd never met Four when he was pretending to be this man, but that didn't matter much, not here. They all knew that no one here was exactly what they claimed to be, but they'd all pretend otherwise for the sake of appearances. If Adam Velanz said that he knew Kevin Jacobs, then he knew him, at least for tonight.  
  
The boy blanched slightly, and glanced at Diana before responding. Adam watched both reactions with a kind of thrill - this boy was an amateur, at best, and would probably crumble if he exerted enough pressure. Diana had salvaged what should have been an impossible situation well, but she'd left herself with a definite weakness by bringing this boy here. All he had to do was exploit that weakness now. "Good to see you again, too, Adam!" he said, taking the clue from Adam's use of his first name to guess at their supposed friendship. But it was obvious he wasn't particularly happy to see his supposed 'friend.'  
  
"Hello, Commander Velanz," Diana said with a smile that looked completely genuine. Very good, considering she'd ordered his death several months ago. "How have you been?"  
  
"Well enough, thank you. I had a very nice trip back from Alpha the last time," he remarked, referring to the fact that he'd escaped her.  
  
"That's nice," she returned, unperturbed.   
  
"And how are you?" he asked, allowing his gaze to drift downward slightly, to brush over the leg he'd ordered broken. She was undoubtedly in a lot of pain right now, and he wanted to remind her of that fact, in case she'd managed to push it out of her mind.  
  
"Very well, thank you. I take it that you and Kevin know each other?"  
  
"Oh yes, we're old friends, but I haven't seen him in years," Adam said cheerfully, ignoring the obvious fact that the boy was only fourteen or fifteen years old, and they couldn't possibly have been friends for as long as he was suggesting. Everything would be taken at face value for now, that was one of the rules of a meeting like this. "We're both from Earth, you know." He was watching the boy carefully, and noticed the slight stiffening in his shoulders that betrayed some sort of strong reaction.   
  
"Of course," the boy replied stiffly, then recovering his pose, smiled. "I do love the Earth, the moon looks so beautiful from there, and I love the open sky."  
  
Adam murmured something appropriate, but his mind was on the odd tone in the boy's voice when he spoke about Earth - almost reverent in it's joy. Well, he'd been to Earth, that was certain, but Adam got the feeling that he didn't live on that planet. A colonist? No, not a colonist, he remembered checking that when he checked the boy's gene sequences. Well, not born a colonist, but raised on a colony... possible. It was time to get the boy out from under Diana's watchful eye. "I'm so very sorry to hear about your father," he said with sweet blatant insincerity.   
  
Diana froze for a fraction of a second, anger flashing in her eyes before she covered it up with a sad smile and a few tears. "Thank you, Commander. Your caring means quite a bit to me." She smiled again, and carefully wiped away the tears so she wouldn't smudge her makeup, and then she looked directly at him, and for a second, she dropped the mask over her eyes and stared at him with her real emotions, and he took an involuntary step back at the death promised in her eyes. A long, slow, painful death.   
  
Then it was gone and she turned to the crowd she'd been talking to when he arrived and made some comment, possibly an anecdote about her father. That was when the wave of anger/hate/rage swept over him, so strong he actually gasped. No one seemed to notice, but his eyes were inexplicably drawn to the boy, and he saw rage that mirrored what he'd just felt in the boy's eyes. Too late he remembered that Four had some empathic abilities the Alliance had suppressed. Apparently this boy had the same skills, and he wasn't suppressing them.   
  
He forced himself to remain calm. "Diana, do you mind if I steal Kevin for just a few minutes?" he asked, knowing that his choice of words would throw her off-balance for a second. "Just to catch up on old times."   
  
"Don't go to far, Kevin," she said with a laugh. "You wouldn't want to leave me all by my lonesome, would you?" she asked teasingly, her eyes making it clear that he was not to be gone very long.  
  
Adam's smile widened at the victory, however slight, and he grabbed the boy's arm and started pulling him across the floor. The boy went unresisting until he went off the main floor and started to pull him towards a hallway. Then he suddenly stopped short, and Adam couldn't budge him, not without making it very obvious that he was pulling him away against his will. "Come along," he said pleasantly. "I'd like to talk to you in private."  
  
"I don't think that would be such a good idea," the boy replied. "Last time I went off with you I got in a bit of trouble, and Diana's promised to skin me if I do it again."  
  
"I insist," Adam replied, a little impressed by how the boy managed to tell the truth and make it sound so innocent.  
  
"No."  
  
Adam was a little startled by the flat refusal. "What say we go into a corner, where you cannot be taken anywhere against your will without everyone seeing it, but where we can have some semblance of privacy in which to speak?" he asked in an undertone.  
  
The boy looked uneasy, but nodded agreement, and together they drifted through the crowd to an unoccupied corner. As soon as they were out of hearing range and behind a large decorative pillar, the smile drained off his face and the vice-grip he had on the boy's shoulder tightened. "Please don't ruin the tuxedo," the boy said softly, a hint of a smile playing around the corners of his mouth. "I'm only borrowing it, and I'd prefer not to ruin it."  
  
"You're not Four," Adam accused bluntly, spinning the boy around so his back was up against the wall. If the boy felt any nervousness about being trapped, he didn't show it.   
  
"No, I'm not Andrew," the boy agreed pleasantly. "And you're not Treize Khushrenada."  
  
Adam blinked at this seeming nonsequitor, then remembered that the boy had thought he was someone named Treize before. He didn't know how this affected anything, though, so he asked, "So who are you?"  
  
"I'm not telling you that."  
  
"Can I have a name at least?"  
  
"You called me Four before. That seems to work fine."  
  
"I thought you really were Four - the one who calls himself Andrew. You're not Four."  
  
"You can call me pilot zero-four if it makes you feel better," the boy said with a shrug. "I'm not telling you my name."  
  
"You're a pilot of some sort?" Adam asked, jumping on the bit of information. "What do you fly?"  
  
The boy looked at him carefully, then his gaze went vacant. It was clear that he wasn't going to give Adam any more information. "I think we're done here," he said softly, and started to push past him, heading back towards the people.   
  
Adam grasped the front of his shirt and spun him back around, pinning him quite firmly against the wall, then placed an arm across the boy's throat, threatening to cut off his air supply. "Cry out and it will be the last thing you do," he warned. "I'm afraid that you're going to have to give me some answers before you leave."  
  
The boy had been making a half-hearted attempt to break away, but did so silently. Now he stopped, raising those huge blue-green eyes to meet Adam's. Adam froze, astonished by how big they were. Then those eyes stared right through him, and he felt a sort of shock run through his heart. "What did you just do?" he growled as one of the boy's hands came up, not to push his arm away, but to clutch at his own heart.  
  
Suddenly he saw something in the boy's eyes that he hadn't seen in the eyes of any of his enemies, not ever. He saw pity. No, that wasn't exactly right, pity he would have resented, could have pushed away, this was something more... understanding, maybe? Compassion? Why was this child looking at him like that?  
  
"I'm sorry," the boy said softly. "I know what it's like to lose a father. It must be even worse to lose both your parents. I never even knew my mother, and when I lost my father, it drove me crazy."  
  
"How did you know that?" he demanded, tightening his hold on the boy's throat.  
  
"You can't hold onto it, though, you have to let go someday," the boy continued calmly, although he had to be having trouble breathing by now. "I destroyed a colony and almost killed my best friend before I was able to let go. Look at what you're doing, please. Make sure that you don't make the same mistakes I did." He closed his eyes briefly, struggling for breath, but when he opened them there was still no fear in his eyes, no anger, just compassion and understanding. Adam had never seen anything like it, never in his entire life. He was suddenly confronted by something completely new and inexplicable, incomprehensible.   
  
For a minute he just stared at the boy in shock, then his training took over. Adam was a trained soldier, and he did what any trained soldier would do in a situation where he was completely confused and disarmed by his opponent - he retreated. He loosened his hold on the boy's neck, then let go of him completely. The boy continued to stare at him with those weird eyes. He backed up several steps, then spun and walked across the floor and back out to the observation room as quickly as he dared without drawing attention to himself.  
  
  
  



	5. Part 4

Diana was very, very tired by the time they left the party at two in the morning. She knew that she'd told Quatre she was fine, and that she didn't need as much sleep as a human, but the truth was she was pushing it now. She hadn't slept for a full day before the raid on the Alliance base that had led to her capture - the fifteen minutes she spent unconscious because of a mild concussion when she barely got clear of that explosion didn't count - then there'd been the lengthy beating the soldiers had given to her, and they broke her leg, not too badly, just enough to keep her in pain. Then came several hours of interrogation, then they tossed her in with Quatre and the others. She hadn't dared to sleep while they were torturing Quatre, because she didn't know who the others were and what they would do if she slept. Then came her own torture session - and she didn't count time spent in a self-induced-coma to count as rest, either. Then they'd escaped. She supposed that she could (and probably should) have rested when the Gundam pilots did on the way back, but it seemed like a waste of the only vacation time she was going to get, so she spent the time talking with the others and snuggling with Andrew. So she didn't get any sleep then. Then came the catch-up work at the base and then this stupid party... all told she'd probably been up for more than three days straight, and they hadn't been easy days. At least she'd met her contact, and had arranged another meeting in a more secret location, so they could talk seriously. The man was just as flighty as she'd feared, but he was willing to give them money. Quatre had done very well - she doubted anyone except Velanz had noticed. Which reminded her...  
  
The truth was that she was about to drop, but her own stubbornness and curiosity was keeping her awake. She had thought, during the party, that she'd seen Velanz beat a hasty retreat across the room, his face rather pale. What in the galaxy could Quatre have said to upset a man who had ordered the deaths of thousands without batting an eyelash? Her curiosity had been eating away at her for hours now, so the second they were safely away in her limo, she turned to Quatre. "Well?"  
  
He looked as tired as she felt. "What?"  
  
"What did you say to Velanz? I don't think I've ever seen that expression on his face before. He looked terrified."  
  
Quatre sat up a little straighter and frowned. "I didn't mean to upset him," he murmured.   
  
Diana stared at him in disbelief. They'd told her that back on their own world, they were all soldiers fighting in some sort of huge robots and had each personally killed hundreds of people. They were terrorists, assassins, and outlaws, with thousands of people out to kill them or worse. It wasn't possible that anyone could go through all that and remain as innocent and... well, as good as Quatre seemed to be. It wasn't possible. Was it?   
  
Holding firmly onto her temper, Diana asked, "What did you say to him?"  
  
"I told him I was sorry. He's in so much pain, even if he doesn't realize it," Quatre said. "He lost his father... just like me. It drove me crazy," he said sadly. "I think it did the same thing for him. I had some wonderful friends to help me come through it. I don't think he has any. I... I feel sorry for him."   
  
Diana continued to stare at him, examining him as if he was some sort of foreign life form. She knew, intellectually, that science had never proven the existence of alien life in the universe, but she was about ready to hand Quatre over to some of those scientists and see what they got. She was beginning to see why Velanz had run.   
  
"I see," she said neutrally.   
  
He turned to look at her. "I know you probably think I'm crazy," he said seriously. "The others all do, even Trowa. But I can't help the way I feel."  
  
There went her theory that the five of them were really some new species. So Quatre was the only one who was crazy.   
  
"It's all right," she said with a shake of her head. "Don't worry about it. I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you for what you did tonight. You saved a lot of lives."   
  
"I'm honored, but we really need to get back to our world. Things may be happening there, and we need to be there when they happen."  
  
"I promise that we'll do everything we can to figure out what happened, and figure out how to send you back as soon as possible," Diana said, meaning every word of what she said, for a change.   
  
--------------------------------------  
  
"Quatre!" Trowa exclaimed softly as the limo arrived in the hanger. Diana climbed out first, looking as poised as ever, but Trowa noticed that her shoulders were drooping slightly, and thought that she was probably exhausted. When Quatre climbed out after her, he definitely looked exhausted.   
  
"Diana..." Andrew suddenly stepped forward, offering a supporting arm to Diana as Trowa stepped forward to offer the same service to Quatre, who gratefully threw an arm over his shoulder and leaned heavily on him.   
  
"This way," Andrew said with a jerk of his head. "We have a room upstairs with some half-way comfortable bunks. It should be deserted this time of day."  
  
"I'm... fine," Diana said unconvincingly.  
  
"Sure, anything you say, sir," Andrew said, completely ignoring her as he helped her to the elevator.  
  
A minute later Trowa helped Quatre out of the tuxedo, which he insisted on removing before he went to bed. Apparently Andrew was having similar problems with Diana, since she emerged from another room dressed in a pair of pants and a long-sleeve shirt. She was giving Andrew a long, complicated series of instructions that Trowa did not understand, and continued to speak as Andrew calmly guided her to a bunk and pushed her down until she was lying down. Then, in a motion almost to fast to actually see, he pulled something out of his pocket and touched it to her neck.  
  
Suddenly Diana's eyes flew open and she sat upright. "You sneaky little bastard!" she exclaimed as Andrew calmly pushed her back onto the bed. Surprisingly, Diana didn't openly resist him, although she continued cursing for several seconds, finally trailing off to silence. Trowa looked over and saw that she was apparently asleep.  
  
He raised an eyebrow and looked at Andrew. "You drugged your commanding officer?" he asked.  
  
Andrew shrugged. "She doesn't always rest when she needs to. This was made specifically for her. It'll wear off in four hours." He shot a glance at Quatre. "Now, are you going to be reasonable, or am I going to have to estimate the dosage for you?" he asked, sounding perfectly reasonable.  
  
Quatre looked at Andrew for a second, then at Trowa, who raised one eyebrow slightly, letting his lover know that he was quite willing to let Andrew drug him if he didn't cooperate. Quatre turned a little pale and hurriedly lay down. "I'll go to sleep," he said quickly.  
  
"Good choice," Andrew remarked, then glanced at Trowa. "If you're not out of here in five minutes, I'll come back in and drag you out," he instructed, and then walked out the door.   
  
"He has a bedside manner like Heero's," Quatre commented.  
  
"But he's right, you need rest," Trowa said softly, leaning over to give Quatre a kiss. "Sleep well."  
  
"I will, koi."  
  
Trowa smiled slightly, then left the room, turning off the lights as he did. Not that it would make much difference - Diana was going to sleep whether or not she liked it, and Quatre was a Gundam pilot - they could sleep anytime and anywhere they wanted, but it seemed right. Andrew was waiting for him outside. "We can't thank you guys enough for what he just did. Good as we are, I wasn't going to be able to be in two places at one time, and Diana said that he did great."  
  
"We really need to get back to our own world," Trowa responded.   
  
"We're working on it, really. Shin's been at it non-stop since we got back."  
  
"Shin?" there was no emotion in his voice, but Trowa knew that Andrew would understand the question and all the implied questions that followed it.   
  
"He may not look like it, but he's a mathematical genius. He's the one with the head for numbers, quantum theory and suchlike. We're all capable of processing the data, but he's the one who can put it all together. If anyone can find out what happened and how to get you back, it will be him."  
  
"Thank you," Trowa said, wishing they'd been able to give him a more positive answer, but slightly reassured that they were working on the problem. He knew that Heero and Duo were doing something about it, too, although he wasn't sure if right now that something involved sex or not. It seemed entirely possible - they'd disappeared an hour ago to do some sort of 'special research' and had locked themselves in a room, much to the distress of Diana's people, who were trying not to let it show.  
  
"They're back?" Wufei asked as Trowa walked into the room where Wufei was exercising with a practice blade.   
  
"Mm."  
  
"And Heero and Duo are still..."  
  
Trowa nodded, and Wufei snorted derisively, although Trowa knew for a fact that Wufei had a lover of his own back on their world. A male lover. Maybe Wufei was just snorting at them abandoning whatever work they were doing. Or maybe he was irritated because they'd probably invited him to join them - again. Or maybe he was just in a bad mood. That was always a possibility.  
  
The question was answered a second later when a woman came striding out of the women's locker room, her hair still wet from a shower. She smiled at Wufei. "Nice spar, kid," she told him, as Wufei's body suddenly became one long string of tense muscles. "Remember to keep your guard up for that kick. Otherwise you would have had me. Good luck." And, with a slight nod to Trowa, she left the room, whistling cheerfully to herself, and Trowa hid a smile.  
  
He glanced at Wufei, who'd gone back to his practice, but there was a definite air of anger about him now as he made the movements.   
  
"She beat you?" Trowa asked, and a growl was his only answer. Trowa felt his lips twist upwards as he left the exercise room. Who would have guessed?  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
Quatre and Trowa were the last to arrive. Diana had woken up after four hours of apparently drugged sleep, because Duo had heard the scolding she gave to an unrepentant Andrew. Quatre had slept for several hours after that, but when he got up, he told them the entire story, about what he'd seen at the party. From what he'd heard, the people in charge around here were just as duplicitous as Romafeller was. The only change was that for some strange reason, Diana was able to meet with them both in battle and in a party - Duo didn't get that part, and wasn't sure he wanted to. He was crazy enough as it was, and he had the disturbing impression that their doubles here were even farther gone than he was, even if they didn't show it very often.   
  
"So, what's the deal?" Duo asked immediately.   
  
"We have lots and lots of good and bad news," Diana said simply. "Shin's been working on your problem, and he thinks he figured out how the hell you ended up here."  
  
"How?" Quatre asked.  
  
"Luck," Shin said, sounding disgusted. "The most amazing set of coincidences I've ever seen. The two devices in the two different universes are linked, and don't ask me how that happened, because I have no idea. But they're linked at a level that transcends both universes - it was something to do with the construction, despite the fact that they were built for different purposes, from what you've told me. Anyway, nothing would have happened, except for some other pretty startling coincidences. Apparently the two universes are sort of... spinning, in different directions. They only align once a month, again for reasons that I can't begin to comprehend."  
  
"Let me guess, the two universes were aligned when we came over."  
  
"Yes, but that's not the end of it. Now, you can only travel between universes when they're aligned, but even that wouldn't have happened if not for the two linked machines. It couldn't - people would be jumping back and forth every month if that was the case. So what appears to have happened was that the two machines were triggered simultaneously - and I'm talking down to one one-hundredth of a second - and that somehow opened a tunnel from one universe to the other, and you got sucked in. Of course, this is all just theoretical."  
  
Duo stared at him. "Was that the good news or the bad news?"  
  
"Neither. That was the background. The first good news is that I think we can get you back. The first bad news is that we have to wait until the universes align again, in twenty-one days, eight hours..." he closed his eyes briefly. "...thirteen minutes, and fifteen seconds, approximately. The timing there isn't quite as precise as the timing for the machines."  
  
"We have to wait twenty-one days to go back?" Duo exclaimed. That was three weeks. They'd already been here for five days - almost a month would have passed by the time they got back. A lot of things could happen in a month. Way too many things could happen in a month.   
  
"Yes, but there's some good news on that account. According to what I've seen - no time should have passed - or very little, anyway. I think that less than a day will have passed in your world when you get back."  
  
"How is that possible?" Wufei asked, raising an eyebrow.   
  
"Do you really want me to get into the physics?" Shin replied with an identical raised eyebrow, and Wufei shook his head. "Anyway, you don't have to worry about that, at least."  
  
Duo didn't like the sound of that. "What do we have to worry about?"  
  
"Well, there is the little fact that the machine in question on our side is currently in the hands of the Alliance, and is likely to stay that way for some time. And from what you've told us, the machine on your side isn't particularly accessible, either. And, when we send you back, you're still going to be in an enemy base. And we don't know who activated either machine. It is possible that activating one machine somehow triggered the other, but I still don't know which machine was activated first. Ours shouldn't have been, but neither should have yours, based on what you told us. There are quite a few unexplained occurrences here, and I'm not sure what else to do to get those answers."  
  
"Can you get us back?" Heero asked, the first thing he'd said since they started.  
  
"Yes. Of course, we're going to have to break you guys back into that base, assuming that they haven't moved that device - Andrew's looking for it now. There will probably be some increased security, but the six of us can handle it, and we've already got some diversions set up."   
  
"The six of you?" Quatre asked, astonished. "But don't you..." he looked at Diana, who was watching all of them.  
  
"I told you we owed you for helping me last night," she said quietly. "Besides that, we have a personal stake in the matter. We're going to get you back." There was a hint of danger in her voice for anyone who dared to get in her way - or even disagree with her. Duo wasn't about to be that person.   
  
"So we're stuck here for another three weeks?" he asked unnecessarily. "What do you have to do around here for fun?"  
  
They stared at him like he was crazy.  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
Dev sorted through the list of expenses that the various rebel bases throughout the colony had accumulated with ease. He'd been taking care of this stuff for years, ever since Diana had taken on the name Tiger when she took over the rebels in Alpha. How long had it been since then? Three years? Four? The years seemed to flow together sometimes. It didn't really matter, not now. The point was that he had been doing this for a long time now, and it was almost automatic. By doing the routine record-keeping (the Alliance would have a fit if they ever found out the level of organization that the rebels actually possessed - they liked to think that there were only a few hundred rebels at best, squatting in a couple of abandoned buildings clinging to their outdated guns and waiting for the Alliance to hunt them down - the truth would probably scare them out of their minds) he left Diana free to handle the thousand and one daily emergencies that only the Tiger could take care of.   
  
He finished his work, and went on to check his mail. There was one new message waiting for him on the computer, and he automatically clicked on it.   
  
The screen was suddenly filled with a variety of very dirty images, the sort that people weren't supposed to have access to until they turned twenty-one, if ever. Each of the pictures was accompanied by a short phrase describing what the authors thought his appropriate use of each picture should be, varying from 'stimulation' to 'a how-to guide'. There were also numerous references to someone called 'the Lightening Count' which gave him a clue as to the identities of the authors of the mail. He sighed, deleted it, and went to look for Diana.  
  
"You have to give them something to do," he declared after he'd pulled her out of a training session with some of the newer recruits, teaching them the basics of how to use a gun. For her, this was relaxation time, and he regretted doing this to her, but this was the fourth message with that sort of image on it to arrive in three days, and they were beginning to get to him, harmless as they seemed.  
  
"Who?" she asked.  
  
"The... the other five. The pilots. They're bored, and that's dangerous."  
  
"What do you mean?" she asked, frowning slightly.  
  
"Duo is spending most of his time putting together... strange... messages for me and sending them. It's getting irritating. I don't want to think what the others are doing."  
  
"Probably nothing. Duo's the troublemaker," she said. "Just like Kane. How are the messages strange?"  
  
Dev trusted Diana with his life, had placed his life in her hand numerous times, and had briefly worked with the scientists who created her, so he was quite aware of the fact that she was smarter than he was, stronger, and had never been a child, despite how young she appeared. She wasn't even human, technically. But there were some things that he was not going to discuss with her. "Just... unusual."  
  
"I want to see them. What's wrong?" she asked as Dev started to sputter. "You've never hidden anything from me before," she said sharply.  
  
"It's not that, Diana..."  
  
"Now I know there's something wrong. You never call me Diana unless there's something upsetting you."  
  
"I just don't think you need to see this."  
  
"Show it to me now." There was no doubt that this was an order.   
  
"I deleted it."  
  
"Get it now."  
  
Dev sighed and went through the deleted files, finally finding the latest one, and pulled it up on the screen, averting his eyes as he did so. He glanced at Diana out of the corner of his eye as she scrolled down. Her eyebrows rose several times, and she was smiling faintly when she finished. "Quite a collection here," she remarked as if it had been a set of car pictures instead of porn. "That looks difficult. Andrew and I will have to try it sometime."  
  
Dev kept his eyes riveted on the wall, resolutely *not* looking down to see what picture she'd been pointing at. He did not want to know.  
  
"Dev, don't ever scare me like that again. I thought he was giving secrets away to the Alliance. I can't believe that you were embarrassed over this, after all we've been through together."  
  
Dev flushed slightly at the memory. "I just..."  
  
"It's all right," she said softly. "Forget about it. But I do see what you mean about boredom. It would take some time to get all of this together, and the fact that they called you 'the Lightening Count' a few times gives away the identity of the perpetrator. Your double on their world is called the Lightening Count. But it does seem fairly harmless." She smiled again, and he realized that she was still teasing him.  
  
He decided to ignore that. "That's because they're not sending stuff to you," he retorted.   
  
"True enough. All right. Why don't you go down there and see if you can get them to tell you about these mobile suit thingees of theirs? We could use a weapon like that."  
  
Although Dev had been looking for less in the way of contact with the boys, not more, he had to admit that what little he'd heard about these robot things they fought with in their own world had him intrigued. "Yes sir." He turned to leave, but stopped when she spoke again.  
  
"Oh, and Dev?" she asked, her voice almost bursting with contained laugher. "Can you forward me a copy of this thing?"  
  
Dev decided not to dignify that with a response. He walked down to one of the empty rooms that the boys had taken to spending their time in, and luckily, all five of them were there. Trowa and Quatre were engaged in a game of chess, Wufei was meditating, Heero was typing away at a laptop he'd found somewhere, and Duo was doing his hardest to distract Heero. As Dev watched, Heero's hand sneaked out and unerringly clamped down on Duo's braid and gave a sharp tug.  
  
Dev just stood there, watching them for a minute. They were like his five, but different - more like an undiluted version. His five showed most of the same personality quirks, but they were much more subdued than these five. Is this what Brian, Kane, Devin, Andrew, and Shin would have been like if they'd been born human? An interesting thought, and one he was willing to play with for a while.  
  
Suddenly the door opened, and Kane came tearing into the room. "Duo! He opened it! And..." Kane trailed off, staring at Dev.  
  
Dev glared at him. "Why do I think that you had something to do with the message I received this morning?"  
  
"What message?" Kane asked, his face perfectly innocent. Yeah, sure.  
  
"Did you help him?" Dev asked, pointing at Duo, who wasn't bothering to hide his snickering.   
  
"Why would you think such a thing?!" Kane exclaimed, sounding very insulted. Unfortunately for him, Dev had seen that technique before.  
  
"You're avoiding the question," Dev said. "Did you?"  
  
"Yes?" Kane replied meekly. Of course, this new attitude was no more realistic than the insulted one he'd had seconds earlier.  
  
"So, what'd ya think?" Duo asked, walking over and exchanging a smirk with his double.  
  
"Diana was very entertained by the pictures."  
  
Kane noticeably paled. "You showed it to Diana?"  
  
Dev nodded, and Kane swallowed.   
  
"How many weeks of cleanup duty do I have?"  
  
Cleanup duty meant going through all the old files in the central computer, making sure that there was no information going out that shouldn't be, and that all copies of old files were deleted, and many other minor details. It also required the person in charge (or victim, as they were often called) to go through the files one at a time. It was the most boring task imaginable, and Diana usually gave it to people who'd irritated her for various reasons. It was a punishment duty.  
  
"She didn't mention anything about cleanup duty," Dev said offhandedly. "She did say that she wanted to try one of those positions with Andrew."  
  
Kane stared at him, and his eyes widened slightly. A smile slowly spread across his face, and he burst out laughing. "Which one?"  
  
"I didn't see."  
  
"Heero and I have tried a few of those," Duo offered helpfully. "If you want, I can show you which ones we tried..."  
  
"That was a lot too much information, thank you very much," Dev said quickly. Heero had glanced up once when Duo said his name, then went back to his typing, but not before Dev saw a flash of something that resembled lust in his eyes. Not a picture he wanted in his head, not when he had to deal with Brian and Kane on a daily basis.  
  
"Well, I'm glad it all worked out," Kane said quickly, flashed one more grin at Duo, and then ran off. He was running almost at full speed, and Dev caught one brief glimpse of him running, braid streaming out behind him, before he went around a corner and was gone.  
  
"So, was that it?" Duo asked, eyeing him thoughtfully.   
  
"No, actually. I wanted to talk to you about these... what did you call them? Mobile suits? The robot things that you keep talking about."  
  
Duo actually winced, and glanced at Wufei, who gave no indication that he'd heard. "I wouldn't let Wufei hear you calling our Gundams 'robots'. They're called Mobile Suits, and ours are called Gundams. Got it straight?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Good. And we can't talk about them."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Sorry." Duo looked uncomfortable. "Can't do it."  
  
"Why? Diana asked me to ask you. They could be a great asset to us, and we need all the help we can get." Dev couldn't believe what he was saying, after Diana had shown them the entire base, risked her life to get them away from the Alliance. Maybe they didn't realize how much Diana had risked for them.  
  
"Yeah, sorry."  
  
"Can you at least give me a reason?" Dev asked, holding onto his temper firmly.   
  
"Yeah. We talked about this before," Duo said with a guilty glance around the room, and Dev suddenly became aware that all eyes in the room were riveted on him. Even Heero, who had actually stopped typing, and Wufei, who'd come out of his trance, were staring at him. "We're not going to tell you, because we don't want your world to end up like ours."  
  
"I'm afraid I don't understand."   
  
"Look, say we told you everything we knew about mobile suits, and between the five of us, we know almost everything there is to know. So we tell you, and you make a mobile suit. Or you make ten of them. It doesn't really matter. You make them, and you fight against your Alliance, and everything's going great until the Alliance puts all of their best scientists onto it, and they build their own mobile suits. Then you've got the same situation you have now, except that every battle won't be fought between men with guns, it will be fought between men in machines that each have the capability to level one of your colonies. Most of our battles are fought on Earth, and its doing enough damage there. You have to know how much more fragile the colonies are than Earth - you just can't sustain battles of that magnitude up here. Several colonies in our world have been completely destroyed because of the war," he glanced, first at Wufei, whose frown deepened, and then at Quatre, who looked away, biting his lip and blinking back tears. "...and we're no closer to ending it now then we were when we first started fighting. The fighting has been going on for two hundred years now. Do you really want that sort of stuff here?"   
  
Dev stared at him. No matter how many times he heard it from Diana and the others, he could never get used to philosophy coming out of the mouths of children. And these boys were born normal human - what had they been through that gave them a similar attitude and philosophy as a bunch of human weapons who knew they'd been created? "You sound like you've spent some time thinking about this."  
  
Duo snorted. "We spend a lot of time sitting by ourselves in the cockpit of a mobile suit, waiting to attack, or waiting for orders. You'll think of a lot of crazy shit after enough time alone."  
  
Dev nodded, feeling somewhat overwhelmed, although he could see why they didn't want to give him information.  
  
"So do you understand why we can't tell you?"  
  
"I think so. Diana will, but I don't think she's going to be happy."  
  
"If it makes you feel any better, we're all volunteering to help you out any other way we can. We do most of our fighting in the Gundams, but most of us have done some work with bombs and stuff, and we're pretty good at that, too. Any help that Diana wants with that stuff, she's got it."  
  
"I'll let her know," Dev said, wondering if Diana would take him up on his offer. He thought she probably would.  
  
"You do that. I've got to have some fun around here, and the mail thing's getting old fast."  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
They're insane, Diana reflected three weeks later. But I'm going to miss them anyway. I wish that someone had told me that Duo's idea of fun involved large amounts of explosives, though.   
  
She'd discovered that little fact after the boys had volunteered to go on some destructive missions. Duo's exhilarant whooping and cheering as the building had gone up in flames had almost given her a heart attack, and she'd had to fight the urge to bite his head off for shouting like that over the com. The only thing that had restored her good humor was the terror that the Alliance soldiers displayed when faced with a cheerful, laughing, homicidal teenager with access to firearms and explosives. More than one batch had turned and run as Duo's laugh echoed around corners of corridors.   
  
The five of them were... different. And disturbing, sometimes. They were enough like their doubles that it was sometimes difficult to tell them apart, and different enough that Diana was frequently shocked by what they said, as a random comment brought her face-to-face with the realization that they weren't the same. And it hurt, sometimes, when she saw Quatre smiling easily or Duo laughing about something (emotions that both of her people had to fake) to see what they might have been like. She liked the other five, but truth be told, she was relieved to see them leaving.   
  
Which left them where they were now, crouched in a back room of the same base they'd infiltrated a month before, waiting for a signal to tell them that the distraction was underway. They'd gotten this far with few problems - the stolen codes had been sufficient to get them into the main hanger of the base, but they hadn't gone much farther than that. They'd gone down two hallways and into a locked storage room, and had been sitting here since. Diana was keeping an eye on the five boys from the other world while her five set up some sort of distraction that would allow a girl and five boys to slip into one of the more heavily guarded areas of the base.   
  
The other five were arranging diversions, and were going to try to meet them at the machine to activate it and then escort Diana out. Not that she couldn't take care of herself, but they were a little overprotective, especially considering what had happened the last time that they'd been to this base.   
  
Suddenly she heard the distant sounds of an explosion. That's the signal?! I'm going to have a talk with those people about subtlety! She glanced at Duo, who had a very familiar expression on his face. "You haven't been talking to Kane, have you?"   
  
"Who me?" Duo said with a knowing grin, and Diana stifled a groan.  
  
"Let's go."  
  
There was surprisingly little resistance as they basically plowed their way through the hall - they saw less than a dozen soldiers as they ran through the whole base. Diana frowned as they reached the store-room and saw five figures waiting. This was too easy. "Any signs of resistance?" she asked.  
  
"No," Brian said darkly, shooting a suspicious look around. They'd opted not to wear masks for this operation, thinking that letting people see their faces might be more efficient. There was a certain advantage in having completely terrified, panicked opponents.   
  
"Let's get this over with. Shin, how much time?"  
  
"Five minutes and twenty seconds, approximately," Shin said as they headed into the dimly-lit storage room.  
  
"I hope you've got a better approximation than that," Andrew said as he tucked his gun back into the holster under his shoulder. His hands started flying across the keyboard set into the device they'd arrived in front of. "I do need a little more detail."  
  
"I'll take care of that when we get to it. Let me know when you've set up the program."  
  
"Give me one minute," Andrew muttered as he typed. "I have to create a program to run this machine on a timer. I can't imagine why they didn't do it in the first place. It's not hard," he continued in a conversational voice as lines and lines of numbers appeared on the screen. "It just takes a few minutes to do it."  
  
"You now have four minutes," Shin told him.  
  
"Got it!" Arthur told him. "Just set the time here..." he pointed, and then let Shin take his spot.   
  
Shin's hands moved almost as fast as Andrew's had as he input data. For various reasons, he was letting the computer figure out the time itself, rather than just typing in the timed countdown. One reason was that the computer could easily get the timing down to thousandths of a second, far more precision than was needed, and although Shin could keep track of hundredths of a second in his head, even they weren't fast enough to set a timer like that with their bare hands. It took Shin two minutes to input all the variables, then suddenly a small counter appeared in the bottom-right corner of the screen, counting down from just under two minutes.   
  
"All set. We'd just better make sure that we aren't within it's radius when it goes off," Shin said with a frown for that possibility.   
  
"How big a radius?" Diana asked, eyes narrowing, and Shin shrugged.  
  
"We probably want to be out of the room when it happens, just to be sure," he said. "I don't think it would be that big, but just in case..."   
  
"All right," Diana said, keeping one eye on the countdown. "It's been... very interesting," she said, failing, with all her diplomacy, to find a better word. "I think that Dev is going to be very glad that you're gone, especially Duo. He thinks you're a bad influence on Kane."  
  
"Well of course I am!" Duo exclaimed, throwing his arm around Kane. The two of them grinned at her with identical expressions on their faces, and she held back a groan.   
  
"Diana," Andrew murmured.  
  
"Honestly, it's been a pleasure meeting you. If circumstances were otherwise, I'd love to come back with you and see your world, but..." she smiled and shrugged slightly. "Good luck against Oz."  
  
"Thank you for all your help," Quatre said with a slight bow. "Good luck to you as well. I..." he trailed off as Diana raised a hand for silence.   
  
"I thought I heard something."  
  
Everyone fell silent, and Diana focused most of her attention on what her ears were picking up. A faint murmur of sound, continuous, but not the sound of the air coming in through the vents. Then she heard it.   
  
"What now?" someone whispered, and it wasn't someone in our group.  
  
"It's a trap!" she shouted, drawing her gun. There was a stinging sensation in her wrist, and she dropped the gun, staring at the small hole in her wrist where it had been pierced by a bullet.  
  
"Diana!" Andrew shouted, feeling her pain.   
  
"Freeze!" shouted a half-dozen voices. "Hands in the air!"  
  
Most of the others were caught in the process of drawing their weapons, and the few that had managed to get them drawn froze when they saw the two dozen or so guns pointed directly at their heads.   
  
"Drop your weapons now!" shouted one of the soldiers, and those who had grasped weapons now let them fall to the floor, then everyone slowly raised their hands into the air. Shit. We are soooo fucked, was Diana's first thought as Velanz stepped out of concealment.  
  
"How long have you been here?" she asked, noticing out of the corner of her eye Quatre and Andrew exchange a glance, then move slightly closer together. To the casual observer, it might not be noticeable or they might look as if they were simply nervous and drawing closer to each other for comfort, but Diana noticed that they were quietly blocking the screen, so that Velanz couldn't see the counter. Less than a minute remained.  
  
Please don't let them be planning what I think they're planning, she thought silently, then caught a hint of a smile on Andrew's face. Fuck. They really were going to do it. Diana considered her alternatives - death, or imprisonment and torture for all of them at the hands of the Alliance. Maybe they were right. They couldn't afford to have all six of them in the hands of the Alliance. Almost anything was preferable to that - between the six of them they had enough information to bring the rebels to their knees quite easily. Anything was better than that. She could see the countdown in her head. Forty seconds left.  
  
"Long enough," Velanz said, stepping closer, although not within range of attack. "How much longer were you planning on staying?"  
  
"Ten minutes," she growled, making herself sound furious. She feigned a struggle for control, then made it look as if she managed to get control of herself. "We overestimated how long it would take us to get through your forces," she said scornfully. "I thought it would take much longer than that." Thirty seconds. "This was a little pathetic, even for you. The five of us could have taken over the base on our own. I expect better."  
  
"Not good on normal defenses," he countered, "but an excellent trap, wouldn't you say?" Twenty seconds.  
  
Diana shrugged and averted her eyes.  
  
Velanz grinned and decided to follow up on his advantage. "That hurt much?" he asked maliciously, looking at the blood trickling out of the wound on her arm.   
  
"Not much." Ten seconds. "Actually, I hadn't noticed it," she lied. It stung, and she'd noticed it, but it really didn't hurt that much, which had her concerned. It wasn't numb, but it didn't hurt, so either she was getting far too used to getting injured, or there was something wrong with her arm that was messing up the pain receptors. She wasn't sure whether or not to hope it was the first.   
  
Five seconds.  
  
"That's sloppy," he said with a frown. "That's a rather transparent lie. What are you planning?"  
  
"Just passing the time," she said pleasantly, then tensed as the timer in her head went off. There was a flash of blindingly bright light from behind her, and everything disappeared.  
  
  



	6. Part 5

Here's a quick extra warning: this story is about to go very, very AU to the storyline of the tv show. I know that I mentioned Quatre's father is dead, but Zechs is still with Oz here, which is still fighting off the remnants of the Earth Sphere Alliance, etc, because it suited my purposes better.   
  
-------------------------------------  
  
Duo felt the gut-wrenching lurch, and before his eyes cleared, threw himself in the direction of the nearest guard, trusting that the other pilots and their doubles would be doing the same thing. The shock of the travel from one world to another had momentarily stunned the Alliance soldiers, but it was only a short matter of time until they recovered. They had a very narrow window of opportunity, and Duo was determined to make the most of it.   
  
His body slammed into something that gave, and he heard a grunt as someone fell beneath him. Then there was a gunshot, shouting, and he narrowly avoided slamming into a wall as he ran away. His eyes cleared just in time to avoid that fate. He spotted a door and dove through it as bullets hit the wall just beyond him. He found himself standing in a well-lighted hallway with Diana and Shin, both of whom looked very upset. Diana's wrist was bleeding more heavily, and there was a large scrape on Shin's cheek, but they were otherwise untouched. There was no sign of anyone else. Must of headed out another door, he thought. But there shouldn't have been another door - there was only one door into the small room that the device had been stored in before. Duo looked around and cursed.  
  
"What?" Diana asked impatiently. She spun around as more soldiers arrived, these in very familiar Oz uniforms. Duo saw Shin place himself between Diana and the soldiers just before they opened fire.   
  
"Come on!" he shouted, taking off down the hall in the opposite direction. He was a Gundam pilot, which meant that he was willing to commit suicide, but not necessarily that he was suicidal. Charging - unarmed - down a hallway toward a dozen armed Oz soldiers was not a good idea, at least in his mind. Heero probably would have charged them, but then, he was Heero. There was no other possible explanation.  
  
The other two spun and ran after him, always staying right on his heels, although he had no doubts that they could move a lot faster than he could if they wanted to. They got out of the range of the Oz soldiers, ran down two more halls, then Duo led them into a (luckily) empty room. "We have a problem," he said, closing the door behind him and peering out through the window to see if there was any sign they'd been found. "This isn't the base that we left from."  
  
"What?" Diana asked sharply as she tore a strip of cloth from her shirt to form a bandage for her wrist, which had stopped bleeding but still looked very painful. Shin was doing the same thing for his upper arm and thigh, both of which had been struck by bullets when they ran from Oz. He was almost as bad as Heero. Almost, but not quite.   
  
"This isn't the same base. You said a day would have passed? Then in that day they moved the machine that brought us here, because this isn't the same base."  
  
"Great. I assume this means that you don't know how to get out of here?"  
  
"Not exactly, but most Oz bases have a similar feel to them. I can probably get us out of here. The others will be doing the same thing. We're better off getting out of here and then trying to meet up with them later."  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Ready for another go at it?" Duo asked cheerfully. Diana looked at him like he was nuts, then nodded. "After you."  
  
Wishing very much that he still had his gun, Duo peeked out the window, saw no one, and pushed open the door. He ran through it at full speed, and they made it down three halls before they encountered any more resistance. He was in the lead, followed by Diana and with Shin trailing. He was just passing through the intersection of two halls when a half-dozen Oz soldiers opened fire on them from behind a hastily-erected barricade. Duo automatically threw himself forward, felt a sting on his left arm as he didn't move fast enough, and then he was safely beyond the reach of the soldiers' fire. Well, relatively safe. As safe as you could be, unarmed in an enemy base that was on alert and looking for you.  
  
"Fuck!" Diana hissed from beside him. He turned to look at her, and she was looking across the bullet-riddled hallway... at Shin, who'd obviously thrown himself backwards when they opened fire. He looked fine, but he was now on the other side of the hallway, separated by the fire of a half-dozen idiots who hadn't realized that they couldn't hit anyone.   
  
"Go!" Shin shouted. "I'll find you!"  
  
Duo didn't hesitate. He grabbed Diana's arm and hauled her down the hall, surprised that she didn't resist him. But she seemed to have some common sense, unlike her double on this world, so maybe she understood that waiting for Shin or trying to help him was more likely to get them all caught than help anyone.   
  
"So where are we?" she asked a few minutes later, when he stopped again to get his bearings. As he looked around, he checked the wound on his upper arm. It wasn't bleeding too badly - he'd been lucky, it was only a graze. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt like Hell...  
  
"Could be any one of the Oz bases," he said, trying to remember if they were supposed to take three rights and then a left to get out from here. He was almost positive it was. Unless it was three lefts and then a right. No, he was practically certain it was three rights and then a left. "Don't think we're in space, though."  
  
"Why not?" she asked as he chose the corridor to the right. She wasn't even breathing hard from all the running and dodging.   
  
"Doesn't feel right," he said between gasps. "You can feel the rotation when you're on a colony. The artificial gravity is pretty good, but you can always feel the difference." He turned right again.  
  
"Right. Your colonies are in space," she said, as if she was reminding herself. But then, she hadn't been present for most of their discussions with their doubles when they described their home world. She truly had no life - every minute of every day was work for her - she didn't 'waste time' on anything that wouldn't help her in her fight. And who would have expected that they'd all end up here? Duo idly wondered what was going to happen to the Alliance soldiers when Oz caught them.   
  
They turned right again.  
  
"So where are we?" she asked.  
  
"On Earth, of course! We haven't colonized other planets yet, remember?" he asked as he skidded to a stop in front of the door to the outside. He dropped to one knee, reaching for the tools he stored in his braid to pick the lock. "Keep an eye out," he muttered to her, probably unnecessarily.   
  
"There are eight soldiers coming this way," she murmured, her eyes locked on the end of the hall.  
  
"How do you know that?" he asked, fumbling at the lock.  
  
"I can hear their footsteps. Sixteen feet, that means eight people, unless your Oz is in the habit of hiring soldiers with only one leg?"  
  
Duo ignored her comment. "How close?"  
  
"Any second now."  
  
Duo cursed, then brightened as the lock finally cooperated. He heard it click open, and then pushed the heavy door, somehow managing to push it open by himself. Must be in a secure area. Great. But at least we'll have a better shot at getting away once we're out in the open. "They're too late! Come on!"He grabbed her wrist and tugged her through the door.  
  
She followed willingly enough - for all of three steps. Then she suddenly froze, and there was no way that he was going to be able to move her. He turned impatiently to look at her - now he could hear the running footsteps of the soldiers. If they didn't get out of there right now, they were going to be caught. He hesitated for a second when he saw her. She was frozen in place, looking at the blue sky above them. Her face was emotionless, as usual, but something told him that she was absolutely, completely terrified. He quickly scanned the sky for mobile suits, but saw nothing.  
  
"Diana!" he hissed.   
  
She swallowed, then glanced at him for a second before returning her gaze to the sky. Then she actually backed up a step, shaking her head. "Go," she instructed as she took shelter back in the doorway.   
  
"What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?"  
  
"I can't do it," she said, shaking her head again, then hunching her shoulders. "Go! Don't get caught because of me!"  
  
"Too late," growled a third voice, and Duo spun around just in time for an Oz soldier to slam his rifle into Duo's chin. His chin exploded in pain, and then there was only darkness.   
  
------------------------------------  
  
Quatre's breath came hard as he and Kane, Duo's double, ran through the halls together. They'd managed to steal some guns from two soldiers they stumbled onto and killed, so at least they were armed now, but that was about the only thing that had gone right. They'd lost Diana, Duo, and Shin right off, as they dove through a different door than the rest of their group when they got away from the Alliance soldiers. Well, that was two things - they had managed to get away from Treize's double and his soldiers, but now Oz was after them.   
  
Immediately after they got away from the Alliance soldiers, Heero and his double, Brian, decided to split up to increase the probability that at least some of them would escape. Brian, Kane, Trowa and Quatre had headed in one direction, while Devin, Andrew, Heero and Wufei had headed in the opposite direction. They deliberately made sure the groups had none of the doubles together - if any of them got caught, they didn't want Oz to know that there were people here from another world, and that they were virtually identical - well, maybe not identical, but very similar to - the Gundam pilots. They'd run down a few halls, then they encountered some heavy resistance. Quatre, as the worst hand-to-hand fighter among them, stayed back while Brian and Kane demonstrated that Heero wasn't the only one with suicidal impulses as they threw themselves at four armed Oz soldiers, luckily taking them by surprise. So then they had guns, but more soldiers showed up and they ended up splitting up again to lose the soldiers. So now Kane and Quatre were on their own, which was not necessarily a good thing, because of all the Gundam pilots, Quatre had seen the least of the inside of Oz bases.   
  
He heard a low rumble coming from the room on his right, and without really thinking about it, turned. He held up his purloined gun and shot out the lock, then kicked the door open. He ran inside, raising his gun and aiming it at the few people who were standing inside. "Freeze!" he shouted, hoping none of them was armed.   
  
Luckily, they weren't. The six techs who were servicing the mobile suits stored here all obediently raised their hands in surrender, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He disliked unnecessary killing a lot, so he tried to always give his enemy a chance to surrender. It rarely worked, though. But it had this time, and he had a problem - what in the world was he going to do with them?  
  
Kane glanced at him, then moved swiftly around the room, disabling each of the techs with a swift blow to the head.   
  
"Sorry," Quatre felt he should apologize for the inconvenience to his companion.  
  
"No problem. Andrew doesn't like killing either. It's no big deal." Kane's expression indicated that he had no idea what their problem was, but that he didn't think it was worth fussing about. Then his eyes got wide as he looked up at the mobile suits. "Shit. Are these... are these your Gundams?"  
  
"No," Quatre said with a nervous laugh and a smile. "These are just normal mobile suits. Ares model. Our Gundams are larger."  
  
"You don't do anything small, do you?" Kane asked, following him to the nearest usable suit.   
  
"Sure, I'm small." Quatre was irritated that he was still the smallest of the Gundam pilots, especially when it didn't look like he was ever going to come close to his father's height. "It's a good thing now, though. It's going to be tight in that cockpit. Come on, grab on." He grabbed onto the cable that would pull him up into the cockpit.  
  
"We're going to share a seat?" Kane didn't sound happy, and to be honest, Quatre wasn't thrilled about it either, but he didn't think that he could teach Kane to fly a mobile suit in under ten minutes, no matter how smart he was.   
  
"Either that or I'll carry you in one of the hands, but you won't have much protection if we get fired at."  
  
"I'll squeeze," Kane said grimly, also grabbing onto the cable. Quatre pushed the button to retract it, and they were both smoothly pulled up to the open cockpit. Quatre quickly jumped onto the hatchway in front of it, gesturing for Kane to follow him. Kane made the jump easily, with no sign of a fear of heights or clumsiness, thank Allah. Of course, they had probably engineered such problems out of him, now that he thought of it.   
  
"Wow, you weren't kidding about it being a squeeze," Kane commented.  
  
"You can still go for the hand if you want," Quatre suggested.  
  
"No, I spend enough time playing target, thank you very much. I'll manage," Kane said, stepping into the cockpit, where he proceeded to wedge himself into the small space between the back of the chair and the back of the cockpit. And that space only existed because Quatre had moved the seat as far forward as he could so that he could reach the foot pedals. It was a good thing that they weren't in his Gundam, which had been made tailored to his specifications - there wasn't this much extra space there.  
  
"You set?"  
  
"You may have to pry me out later, but I won't fall out now."  
  
"Good." Quatre climbed into the seat and closed the hatch. "You're not claustrophobic or anything?"  
  
"That sort of behavior wasn't tolerated."  
  
"Oh." Quatre couldn't think of any other way to respond to that, so he just started the preliminary systems-checks. Already his mind was flying ahead, considering his options. It all depended on whatever he would find outside: what base he was at, what stationary defenses Oz maintained here, how many mobile troops there were...  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Heero ducked his head down and pushed the gas pedal of the jeep they'd stolen to the floor. Andrew was in the seat next to him, and Devin and Wufei were in the back seat. The other three were all facing backwards, stolen guns in their hands, firing at the... Heero glanced in the rearview mirror... six jeeps that were chasing them. At least the base hadn't managed to scramble any mobile suits yet, but that was only a matter of time.   
  
He saw one of the jeeps swerve into another, sending both of them careening into the woods as one of his companions managed to shoot out a tire. Two down, four to go.   
  
Heero recognized this base. It was a small research station in southwest Asia. They weren't supposed to have any suits, but if there were any sent here for upgrades, they could be put into use against him. Behind them, someone managed to shoot the driver of another vehicle which went crashing into the trees on the side of the road. Three down, three to go.  
  
"Kisama!" Wufei suddenly shouted as a mobile suit appeared in the air above them, and Heero was momentarily tempted to swear himself. It would be very difficult to fight the mobile suit with a couple of handguns, and they couldn't jump out and go to the woods, not with the three jeeps still following them and with Andrew and Devin along. The chances of them getting separated was too great, and if he lost them, he would fail in his self-appointed mission to protect them until they could be sent home. He wasn't about to let that happen, but he was also under standing orders not to allow himself to be captured. Which was more important? To follow his own orders, or those handed down from above?  
  
The decision was taken out of his hand as the mobile suit opened fire. Heero braced himself for the impact, but the missiles soared over his head and smashed into the three jeeps that had been following them, before they were blown up. Heero's head snapped back to the mobile suit, which was pacing them, flying along above the road. No pilot with enough skill to follow them so closely could possibly have missed that badly. Heero hit the brake, nearly unseating his passengers.   
  
As the jeep screeched to a halt, the mobile suit landed just in front of them, and the hatch popped open. Quatre walked to the end of the little platform and waved. "We're clear! We destroyed the rest of the mobile suits! There's a safehouse near here!" he shouted. "Down this road to the end and turn left onto the main highway. Three miles down there will be a little road to the right. Take that to the end - the house is there."  
  
Heero nodded his understanding, wondering who the 'we' was. Quatre had obviously gotten separated from his group, but Heero didn't see any other mobile suits. Quatre turned to look into his cockpit, then shouted, "Wait a second!" A second figure emerged from the mobile suit cockpit, paler than Quatre and slightly taller.   
  
"That's Kane," Andrew murmured to Heero.   
  
Without any regard to the height, Kane jumped off the platform, landing lightly on his feet on the ground right in front of the jeep. "I'm riding with you guys," he announced as he climbed into the jeep. "Those things are not made for two people. Quatre says that he's going to dump the suit and then meet us there."  
  
"What happened to the others?" Andrew asked as Heero took off again.  
  
"We got separated. Any sign of Diana and the others?"  
  
"No."  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Adam Velanz realized what they'd done about three seconds after the fact, which was far too late to stop any of his enemies, who all immediately launched themselves at his soldiers. Every single one of them got away, and he wasn't even sure that any of his soldiers had gotten off a shot. Fools, all of them, he thought derisively before taking off himself, leaving them behind. They didn't know what had happened before, so they couldn't possibly know what had happened to them now, but he knew. The little bitch had sent them all to the other world, the one that boy who looked like Four came from, rather than allow them to be captured.   
  
Now, not only had they escaped - again - but now he was stranded on this other world by himself. He didn't have the slightest idea how to get back, either. All he knew about the process was the little the scientists had told him, about the machines being linked and parallel universes or something. All he had been interested in was when they needed to get to the machine so that he could set a trap for them - he didn't even know why they needed to return at that time. Now he cursed his impatience and laziness.  
  
He pushed such thoughts out of his mind as he began running through the halls, his gun drawn. First things first - he had to get out of here with his hide intact. After that he could work on figuring out where the hell he was and what his options were.   
  
He turned a corner and ran straight into eight soldiers in an unfamiliar uniform, all carrying weapons. They stared at him for a second as he hesitated - there were a lot of them, should he try to fight his way out of here, or surrender? He knew nothing of the government on this world, but he knew that he would not want to be captured by the Alliance if the circumstances were reversed. He had just about made up his mind to fight when all of the soldiers straightened to attention, saluting him.  
  
"Your Excellancy! What are you doing here?" one of the soldiers stammered, looking directly at him.  
  
He froze. He hadn't gotten where he was now by being a complete idiot, and his mind flew as he tried to figure out what was going on. Suddenly he realized what was happening, and f ought the urge to smile. Four's clone had called him 'Treize' twice! Treize Khushrenada, if he remembered correctly. This Treize must be his double on this world, and apparently Treize was a powerful man. "That is my business, soldier," he said sharply, and all of the men jumped.   
  
"Yes... yes sir!" the man who'd spoken before stammered. "Ah, sir, we are on alert. There are intruders in the base, it's not safe."  
  
"Very well. I require an escort to the nearest vehicles."  
  
"Sir?" the stunned look on the faces of the soldiers told him that he was acting very differently than his double would, but it didn't matter. They'd never guess the truth, and until they found out he wasn't Treize, they were going to obey him, no matter how strangely he was acting. And once he got to a position where he could commandeer (or steal) some sort of transportation, he was going to escape.   
  
"Is there a question, soldier?" he asked sharply.  
  
"No... no sir! You two! Escort his Excellency to the hanger!" the soldier directed some of his companions.   
  
"Yes sir!" the men saluted and moved to flank him, and he allowed a small smile of approval to appear on his face.  
  
"After you," he said with a nod of his head.  
  
The soldiers exchanged a startled glance, then started working. Adam continued to smile as the enemy soldiers lead him to his freedom.   
  
------------------------------------  
  
Trowa jumped over the sentry who was trying to hold a gun on him, landing behind him, and disarmed him with a quick motion. Brian then rushed the man, snapping his neck with one smooth, efficient motion. He looked at Trowa with an emotionless expression. "What now?"  
  
Trowa pointed at the forest. "My Gundam is hidden near here, along with some supplies."  
  
They started jogging through the forest. "Why is your Gundam here?" Brian asked as they ran. He was breathing easily, and his voice was calm.   
  
"I was supposed to have a mission after we invaded that base."  
  
"Mission?" Trowa was certain he saw Brian's eyes light up at the word.  
  
"Destroy the base we just escaped from."  
  
Brian's lips twitched downward. "You'll have to wait. We need that machine."  
  
Trowa nodded silently as the forest started to look familiar. A few minutes later they reached the glade where he'd hidden Heavyarms. There was a large camouflage net covering his Gundam, but from this distance it was easy to see. Brian stopped to stare, and even on him his surprise was evident. Trowa smiled to himself and walked to the 'foot' of his Gundam and started sifting through the boxed stacked next to it.   
  
"This... your Gundam?" Brian finally asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"It could not stand up in some of the smaller colonies without demolishing them," Brian observed, his eyes traveling up and down the length of it.  
  
"You have colonies that small?"  
  
"A few. The Alliance experimented with domes in other shapes than bubbles, so see if they were more efficient." Brian continued to examine Heavyarms.  
  
Trowa didn't respond. He tossed a spare emergency rations pack he'd stolen from Oz to Brian.   
  
Brian opened the pack and began to mechanically eat it's contents. He either didn't notice or didn't care that the emergency rations tasted like sawdust. Trowa knew. He worked at a circus sometimes, and that's what sawdust tasted like. He was used to it, by now. Quatre hated the taste of the emergency rations, although he was too polite to complain about them, especially when it was the only thing they had to eat. I hope he got out of the base safely, Trowa thought. As usual, the depth of the emotions he felt for the blond pilot startled them. He wasn't used to feeling anything. He basked in the sensation for a moment, then pushed it aside. He started eating his own rations.  
  
"Trowa, can you teach me how to pilot a mobile suit?" Brian asked after he finished eating. He was still staring at the huge mobile suit.   
  
Trowa just stared at him.  
  
"All of the fighting on your world is done in mobile suits," Brian pointed out, never taking his eyes off the Gundam. "I know nothing of them. In order for me to be of any assistance to you, I must know how to operate one."  
  
Trowa sighed. Brian had a good point, but he didn't like letting anyone in his cockpit. But it wasn't as if Brian was going to try sabotaging it or was going to give information away to Oz. "Just a basic lesson. We can't risk powering up out here, or Oz will see us. You'll have to use a simulator for actual practice." There was no way he was letting anyone practice piloting in Heavyarms.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Shin slowly crept through the woods that surrounded the base. He'd browned his skin and hair, which was as close as they could come to camouflage using their chameleon ability. He'd managed to make it out of the base with few problems, mostly because he'd created a new door to the outside by slamming his fist repeatedly through the cement wall, which wasn't particularly well built. But if they wanted to make their walls less than a foot thick, that was their problem. His problem was what he was supposed to do now. He was on Earth, he knew that much, but hadn't spent much time there before. He wasn't sure that he would be able to identify his location on his Earth, much less one in a parallel dimension.   
  
With a sigh, he climbed the biggest tree he could find, wondering why he couldn't find a better way to figure out where he was. He was supposed to be a genius - there had to be something more he could do, right? Not without some sort of tool - even they couldn't create something from nothing. And the only way that he was going to get anything right now was to steal it. He didn't have any problems with that, provided he wasn't stealing from someone who really couldn't afford it, but he needed to be around people in order to steal anything. Which brought him back to where he was, climbing this stupid tree.  
  
He reached the top and looked around, and saw lots and lots of forest. A dozen or more miles away, beyond where the forest ended, he saw a small city. That was the only sign of civilization he could see, except for the base, and he wasn't going back there. As Shin focused his almost-binocular eyes on the figures moving around in the distant city - they looked like little miniatures from this distance, but he could make out one detail that caused a hint of a frown to cross his face. All of the figures were Earthlings. Even colonists here looked like Earthlings, he remembered. As he thought of it, he automatically darkened his hair to black, his skin changing tones to match. There was nothing he could do about his eyes out here, but he ought to be able to steal some sunglasses or something. Worse case, he could pretend that he was blind. Most people assumed that, anyway.   
  
He took one last look at the city, judging how long it would take him to get there if he didn't take the road. He couldn't now - not with those other soldiers searching for him, not knowing anything about this world. He'd figure out how to contact the others once he had some supplies, but for now, he just had to get to civilization. They had just under a month until they had to get back to that machine in order to get home - he'd already calculated the time down to three tenths of a second. But he was the only one with this information - he had to get in contact with the others.  
  
It was well over a dozen miles through woods, up and down hills. At top speed he could make it in just under an hour. A very long time by his standards, but there was nothing he could do about it. He started climbing down the tree, trying not to glance up at the endless expanse of sky. It wasn't a conscious thing - the open space just made him uncomfortable. That was a common problem among colonists. It wasn't a phobia - that wasn't permitted - but it didn't change the fact that he'd been created and trained in an underground colony, and did most of his work in domed colonies. He just wasn't used to having so much space above him. At least he'd been to Earth a few times while he was still working for the Alliance. That helped, as long as he didn't look straight up.   
  
As he started running at top speed through the forest, he wondered how Diana was dealing with the open sky. She'd never been anywhere but the colonies...  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
Diana stumbled and then automatically rolled to avoid injuring herself as the Oz soldiers shoved her into the dimly-lit cell. All of that barely registered on her mind. She was still in shock. I froze! Like some rank amateur, I froze! Worse than that, I managed to get Duo captured as well! I... I just saw the sky... Diana shuddered, and realized with some surprise that she was unable to stop trembling.   
  
"Hey, what's wrong?" Duo asked, a concerned look on his face.   
  
Diana found herself unable to speak, she was trembling so badly. She silently shook her head and sank to the ground, tucking her manacled hands up against her chest. I can't remember the last time I felt like that. I was scared when the Alliance had me, scared that they'd break me and I'd betray everything I've fought to built, but this wasn't like that. I was just... terrified. Of what? The stupid sky? But even as she berated herself for her idiotic behavior, a shudder ran through her at the thought of all that open space. Even outer space didn't seem as open as the sky she'd glimpsed. She'd lived her entire life in a domed colony. All that open space seemed... indecent at best, a monstrosity at worst.   
  
Intellectually she knew that her situation was odd at best. Humans had lived on Earth for thousands of years before they even thought about leaving the planet. But the domed skies of the colonies were all she'd ever seen, all she'd ever known.   
  
"It's being on Earth, isn't it?" Duo asked, walking over and putting a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder.   
  
"Don't touch me," she said sharply, striving for control. She stood up and walked several feet away, taking deep breaths to get control of herself. She didn't see any cameras, but that didn't mean that they weren't there. She couldn't show any weakness. "I'm fine." It was almost true. She was in control of herself now, she wasn't shaking anymore. Now all she had to do was stop hyperventilating every time she thought of that open sky... she shivered, and forced herself to stop.   
  
"Man, you're as bad as Heero!" Duo exclaimed. "Look! You don't have to be perfect all the time! No one's going to kill you if you admit that you need help once!"   
  
The analytical part of her mind (which was very distinct and separate from other parts of her mind) noted that most of Duo's comments were probably supposed to be directed at Heero, and that he was just venting his frustration on her, although his accusations might be true. That part of her mind also noted that he was acting as though he didn't think anyone was watching them.  
  
Her analytical mind took over while her emotional side was still reeling from first the shock and fear, then from his accusations. "Aren't you afraid that they're watching us?" she asked.  
  
"Who? Oz? They don't bother. Trowa infiltrated them once and gave me and Wufei the plans for our Gundams, they never even suspected a thing," Duo scoffed at his enemy's abilities. "Now, what the hell is going on? I was right, wasn't I? You're afraid of open spaces," he accused. "It's 'cause you were raised in a colony, right? I've heard some people have that problem."  
  
Diana glared at him. "Yes, that is probably the problem. It won't happen again."  
  
"Hey! It's all right! Jeeze, you are as bad as Heero! You're allowed to have a fear or two, it won't kill you!"  
  
"You have no idea what you're talking about," she growled. "It could kill me. Do you have any idea what would have happened if the Alliance had found out that I have this... this weakness? They would have exploited it, and I would have cracked, and all of my people would have died! I am not allowed to have weaknesses! People... my people... die when I falter, even for an instant! It's not like you guys - I'm not just killing the enemy, and we're not just risking ourselves! We don't have superweapons like you - I can't do it by myself. So I order my people into battle, I order them to their deaths! So any weakness on my part is a death sentence for someone! Don't tell me that I'm allowed to have weaknesses, because that's the same thing as telling me I like killing my soldiers!"  
  
Duo stared at her with wide eyes, and she knew she'd alienated him, possibly permanently, but she wasn't sure if she could keep going. This latest incident was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Maybe the Alliance really had broken her, and she just hadn't realized it until now. She'd gotten caught twice by the Alliance in the last month, after successfully eluding them for fifteen years. Maybe she was slipping. Maybe this fear of open spaces was just a symptom of something else that was wrong...  
  
Damnit, that's not right. I'm just looking for an excuse to quit, she thought to herself. The only way she was ever going to quit was if the Alliance was completely destroyed, she died, or she was forced to leave because she was endangering the Rebels. The first wasn't likely to happen in her lifetime (who knew how long that would be?). That meant her only ways out would be death or insanity. She'd never quit on her own, for two very good reasons. Her own sense of morality wouldn't allow it - she couldn't sit there, off somewhere safe while she knew that the Alliance could be killing people, while other people fought in her place. The second reason was also because of the Alliance - when they'd designed her, they did something so that she was only satisfied with herself if she was fighting. She couldn't stop because her own mind wouldn't let her.   
  
"I'm sorry, Duo, I didn't mean it," she said wearily, trying to put out the fires before she burned her bridges completely. "I was just... upset about the whole phobia thing. I've faced imprisonment, torture, and death with a whole lot more poise than a clear blue sky. I really didn't mean any of it."  
  
"Yes you did," he said, walking closer again, eyeing her suspiciously. "You really do think that."  
  
"No I don't," she said, silently using all of the curse words she knew. She should have known better than to underestimate him, try to get him to believe a blatant lie like that. It was easy to forget, both with him and Kane, that beneath the joking surface was a mind as intelligent as any.   
  
"Yes you do. You think that any time you're less than perfect, you're killing people. You really believe that."  
  
Diana avoided looking at his eyes. "So?"  
  
"You're really fucked up."  
  
"I am aware of that fact."  
  
"You can't expect yourself to be perfect. No one is perfect. And being less than perfect doesn't mean that you kill people."  
  
"People die when I mess up. Hell! They even die when I don't mess up!" she said, and was horrified to hear her voice crack slightly. She was losing control. She couldn't...  
  
"Did it ever occur to you that you're fighting a war?" he demanded. "You're a commander, people don't expect you to keep everyone alive!"  
  
"You're saying that they're expecting to die?" she asked bitterly, and felt tears pricking her eyes. NO! I can't lose control!  
  
"Damn it! They don't want to die, and no one expects to die, but that doesn't mean that you're expected to fight a war without losing anyone!"  
  
Diana didn't answer. She was too busy fighting back tears. Andrew had told her this before, and so had Dev, and numerous others, but she'd never been able to believe it before. They were all her subordinates - they had to tell her whatever they thought would keep her going. If she broke down with self-recriminations, she wasn't any good to anyone. But Duo wasn't her subordinate - he would tell her the truth (he claimed he never lied, although she had a hard time conceiving that), and he was telling her the same thing. That it wasn't wrong if she made a mistake, if she wasn't perfect all the time.  
  
"How many people would have died if you didn't take command?" Duo said, not realizing he'd already gotten his point across. "How many of the Rebels you think you've killed would have been killed if you didn't help? A lot more, I'd say."  
  
That did it. Diana knew all too well how many people would have died if she hadn't taken command - she'd seen the numbers before she joined the Rebels, and knew from projections she'd made that the numbers would have gone up as the Alliance started to take the Rebel threat seriously.   
  
Diana started to sob silently, tears running down her face, and once she started, she couldn't stop. All the grief she'd been containing, concealing for the six years she'd been in command suddenly came out in a flood of emotions, triggered by one irrational fear and a few kind words.   
  
Duo just stared at her with a confused and worried expression on his face, and when she finally got herself back under control, several minutes later, he asked, "Are you all right? Were you choking or something?"  
  
Diana laughed. "No, that was my version of crying. I'm feeling better now. Thank you very much."  
  
"Crying?" Duo asked. "You can't even do that right! Remind me to find someone who knows how to cry to show you how to do it right!" he said with a grin.  
  
"You don't cry?" she asked. Her five didn't - it had been trained out of them - and actually, normally she didn't cry either. She simulated it numerous times, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd actually cried for no reason other than emotion. All of that was normal for genetically engineered beings, but she couldn't understand why Duo wouldn't cry.  
  
"Nah. I stopped crying years ago. Used up all my tears," he said with a shrug that was only partially successful in hiding the pain he felt at something in his past. Whatever it was, she wasn't about to pry. She had painful memories she'd prefer not to examine too closely herself.  
  
They sat together in silence for several minutes, then Duo asked, "Were you serious before when you said that you could get over that fear of open spaces thing?"  
  
"It just caught me by surprise this time. I wasn't expecting the open sky, and I wasn't expecting the fear, either. I'll be ready next time. Why?"  
  
"We can't stay here forever, you know," he said with a grin. "We have to escape soon, or the Doctors will send Heero in to kill us. They did that once before, you know."  
  
"Sent Heero to kill you?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"But he didn't."  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Was this before or after you became lovers?"  
  
"Before, but don't you go thinking that a little thing like sex would stop Heero once he was on a mission."  
  
"So why didn't he kill you?"  
  
"My overwhelming personality?" Duo suggested in a voice that left her with no doubt that Duo wasn't certain of his answer. "'Cause he's Heero. His orders were to silence the leak, i.e. me, but he decided to rescue me instead. Go figure." There was a slightly dreamy expression on Duo's face, and Diana smiled.  
  
"So when you want to run?"  
  
"Night is usually better than day. Just how strong are you?" he asked.  
  
"Strong enough to punch a hole through the wall to escape if we have to. But it might be easier to kick the door in."  
  
Duo stared at her. "Those doctors of yours didn't mess around, did they?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then the door it is," he said with a grin that quickly disappeared as the door opened, letting normal light into the room for the first time. Diana blinked as she got to her feet, her eyes adjusting quickly to the change in illumination. She gazed evenly at the Oz soldiers who came in.  
  
The lead soldier looked between her and Duo, then grinned and pointed at her. "That one. The girl. Bring her."  
  
Two soldiers moved to flanking positions as another gestured for her to walk out of the cell. She kept her face carefully blank, but inwardly she was smiling. They'd obviously picked her because they thought that she'd be easier to break. The Alliance had thought she'd break easily, too. She always got a certain satisfaction out of proving them wrong.   



	7. Part 6

"General Treize, there's something you have to see," Zechs Marquis said as they stepped into Treize's personal quarters. "There was an... occurrence at one of our research bases, less than an hour's ride from here."  
  
"An occurrence?" Treize asked, raising an eyebrow at Zechs' choice of words. "Not an attack?"  
  
"The Gundam pilots were involved," Zechs admitted. "But if it was an attack..." he shook his head slightly. "It was an amazingly inept one. The first alarm was called when there were gunshots in one of the storage rooms, the one containing the machine that was brought in from the base in the L2 colony yesterday. Our men rushed in and apprehended over two-dozen men, wearing an unfamiliar uniform. We've already debriefed them, and they all claim to work for an organization known as the Alliance that is in control of Earth and several extra-terrestrial colonies."  
  
Trieze frowned. "The Earth-Sphere Alliance?"  
  
"No, and they don't know anything about mobile suits, or our colonies. Their colonies are apparently located on other planets, not in space. But that's not what brought this to my attention."  
  
"It gets better?" Treize asked, leaning back in his chair.   
  
"Yes. These pictures were taken by a camera in the northern end of the facility." He handed Treize a folder. Inside were several grainy images of a strange-looking pair of people standing next to pilot 02, Duo Maxwell. The other two were both albinos, or so it appeared. He blinked and looked closer. The male albino was actually pilot 05, Chang Wufei. "What is our little dragon up to?" he murmured to himself.  
  
"That's not all. They got separated, apparently, because we have pilot 02 and the girl in custody, and Wufei got away. But that's not why I brought this to your attention, either. Look at these. They are from the southern end of the facility." He handed Trieze a second folder, then stepped back to wait for his superior's reaction.   
  
Treize didn't see what was so interesting with the images, although he'd never admit that to Zechs. He continued to study the pictures. They were of two other groups of Gundam pilots. It seemed that more of them than just Wufei were pretending to be albino, for some reason. Then he blinked and looked closer at one of the pictures in the second file, then back at one from the first file. What he was seeing was impossible. He checked the time that was automatically printed in the bottom right corner of every picture. No, he hadn't been mistaken. But what was this? It was right there in front of him, but he couldn't figure out what it meant.   
  
Because right in front of him was the impossible - at 16:32, at the north end of the facility, there was the captured image of the two pilots and the strange girl. At 16:33, at the opposite end of the base, pilot 04 was seen along with an albino version of pilot 02. That put pilot 02 at opposite ends of the base, once with makeup (or so he assumed) and once without, in the company of two different groups, within a minute.   
  
"What do you make of this?" Treize asked casually, tossing the folders onto his desk.  
  
"A clone?"  
  
"Possibly, but who could have done it? The Gundam pilots are strong, but it's an entirely different thing to create biological duplicates then it is to build a machine, even a machine as complicated as a Gundam."  
  
"It was just a possibility. I have instigated a search for the clones, as well as the pilots, if they really are clones. I must admit I have a hard time picturing Wufei allowing that. It would never appeal to his sense of honor."  
  
"No, it wouldn't," Treize said with finality. "But then where did they come from?" he wondered aloud, his gaze drifting back to the first picture. "Do we have any idea who the girl is?"  
  
"No, but we're working on it. There's more. We have a number of soldiers who swear that they saw you on the base during the alarm."  
  
"I was nowhere near that base."  
  
"Nevertheless, they swear that it was you, but your hair was cut short and you were wearing some uniform no one had ever seen. There are over a dozen soldiers who attest to that fact. I've already sent a team to investigate."   
  
"Good." Treize did not like the idea of someone daring to pose as him, but then his attention was drawn to something else. He was examining the girl's face very carefully. There was something very familiar about her, something he couldn't place... Suddenly he realized something else about the girl, and his blood chilled. "You said the girl and pilot 02 were captured?"  
  
He could see Zechs frown in confusion under the mask. "Yes sir."  
  
"How long ago?"  
  
"Just over six hours, sir..." Zechs trailed off as the same thought occurred to him as had occurred to Treize, and he paled. "She's..." he broke off with a low oath.  
  
Treize had given orders that the Gundam pilots be brought to him unharmed, but he in no way believed that that was any guarantee of the pilot's safety. Strange that he was trying to kill them while they were in their suits, but trying to protect them on the ground. Not so strange, actually. He respected his enemies, even if he was obliged to fight them. And despite everything, they were children. He wanted them to cease fighting him, but he loathed the thought of them being tortured, which was why he had tried to protect them from the worst of his own men. And the girl didn't even have the slim protection his orders provided. And she was beautiful...  
  
"I want to see the prisoners now," he said coldly. "In fact, let's pay the base a visit..."  
  
------------------------------------  
  
"They've been captured," Andrew said, staring intently at Heero's computer. If it was possible, he was even better at hacking then Heero - it had taken him less than an hour to get into Oz's main computer. "Pilot 02 and an unidentified female were captured at base 02341 at 16:43 yesterday. They're currently being held at the base." He frowned slightly and leaned back. "No injuries reported," he murmured. "It's not like Diana to allow herself to be taken so easily. She should have taken out at least two or three of them."  
  
"They were unarmed," Quatre felt constrained to point out.   
  
"It doesn't matter with us," Andrew replied. "She killed off a dozen Alliance soldiers when they caught her by surprise at her fifteenth birthday party. I can't see her getting captured and not getting at least two or three of the guards, even if she was unarmed."  
  
"She might have been trying to conceal her abilities," Quatre suggested, but Andrew shook his head.  
  
"I can't explain it, but something went wrong..." he stared at the screen for minute more, then made a disgusted sound and roughly pushed his seat back, standing up. His frustration was easily apparent. He walked to the window and stared out it silently for several minutes, then shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm pushing myself to my limits, but I can't find her. I can't even figure out what's wrong. I can't..." his voice cracked slightly from the strain, and Quatre finally realized what was going on.  
  
"You're trying to... to use your gift," he said, stunned. "Use it like a weapon."  
  
Andrew glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, a haunted expression on his face, but he didn't say anything. Devin moved to comfort him, speaking so softly that Quatre couldn't hear him. But after a moment Andrew nodded and left the room.   
  
"Fuck," Kane cursed. "He's doing it again, isn't he?" he asked Devin, who nodded, a slightly worried expression on his face.   
  
"Doing what?" Quatre asked as Heero took his place at the computer, examining whatever it was Andrew had done and grunting in satisfaction. Then Heero started typing as Wufei looked on.   
  
"He... he was punished more than any of us combined, either when he failed to do something, or just whenever our commanders felt like it. Our project head was a sick, sadistic psycho. Sometimes when he fails to do something, Andrew just... goes somewhere else. Devin can usually help him, but he needs time to be alone. Killing the Director was too good for him."  
  
Quatre nodded sympathetically, wondering what they would think of a few scientists who gave people who were essentially children weapons of mass destruction. Quatre didn't consider himself or any of his companions children, doubted that any of them had ever been children, but they weren't genetically engineered the way their doubles were. Did that make the scientists better or worse?  
  
Quatre stood up and left the room, trusting his instincts to lead him to the right place. He followed them outside, to where he'd hidden the mobile suit they'd stolen. Somehow Andrew had managed to climb up the outside of the suit and was now sitting on it's head. Quatre could dimly see white-blonde hair waving in the wind on top of the suit. With a sigh, he started scrambling up himself, nearly falling several times, but he made it to the top in one piece.   
  
"Hi," he said uncomfortably, not sure of what had brought him up here.  
  
"She's hurting right now, I can feel it," Andrew said. "Nothing more specific, but she's in pain. And... and something frightened her before, when we were escaping. I don't know if I've ever felt her that frightened before. But I can't do anything for her, can't help her at all..." his voice was thick with self-loathing.   
  
"It's not your fault she got captured, and I've never heard of anyone being able to do as much with their kokoro no uchuu as you do."  
  
"Space heart?" Andrew asked with a bitter laugh. "That's an interesting word for it. No, I know it's not my fault. But... it's been very hard to throw off the training. Sometimes I feel that when I fail to do something, I should be punished."  
  
"That's terrible," Quatre breathed, horrified.  
  
"It's all I knew for the first fourteen years of my life. It's amazing we aren't all even more fucked up than we are," he commented, and then his eyes went distant again.  
  
"You're worried about Diana, aren't you?"  
  
"Yes. You're worried about Trowa, aren't you?"  
  
Quatre had been trying not to think about that. "Yes," he admitted. "But worrying about it doesn't help. We're Gundam pilots - we probably won't survive the war. I just try to enjoy each day."  
  
"Because it's better than being alone," Andrew said, finishing his thought. "And you always could have never met him. And even just today is one more day that you have him." He smiled, a wry one. "It's the same with me and Diana. We started seeing each other almost immediately after we got her back from the Alliance. So far it's been... I'm happier than I can ever remember being, and I think she's enjoying it too."  
  
"Are you... I mean do you..." Quatre trailed off nervously, unsure of how to ask this question. He and Trowa were in love, there was no question in either of their minds. He couldn't imagine getting together with someone for anything less, but Andrew was from another universe, on top of everything else. He might not view it the same way.  
  
"I don't know," Andrew said with a sigh. "I... I'm not used to feeling anything - none of us are - it's all too new. The things that I feel now, I don't know if I can trust them. But I do enjoy being with her, and I'm more comfortable with her than anyone else."  
  
Quatre smiled encouragingly. "I'm sure things will work out."  
  
Andrew looked at him like he was some sort of interesting specimen in a lab, his eyes traveling from head to toe and back again. "How do you do that? Remain so positive? It looks exhausting."  
  
"I just am this way," Quatre said with a smile. This wasn't the first time he'd gotten this reaction, and it wouldn't be the last time, either.   
  
Andrew turned back to staring at the sky. "It's beautiful here," he murmured after a few minutes. "The last time I was on Earth, I didn't have a chance to appreciate it. I haven't been back since I left the Alliance. It really is... wonderful. There's something here that just can't be reproduced on a domed colony."  
  
"That's what I said, the first time."  
  
"There are a lot of colonists from my universe who are... not afraid, but very uneasy when they visit Earth. Too much open space, the environment is too unpredictable, too much blue sky. Shin's like that. Brian too. Not me. I loved Earth the second I saw it. There's just something here that feels right to me. It's the same for Devin and Brian. I think, maybe, we weren't meant to be colonists."  
  
"How about Diana? How did she react?"  
  
"Diana? I don't think she's ever been to Earth. Travel between Earth and the colonies is pretty limited. I think this is her first time on Earth. An Earth, anyway." Once again there was a worried frown on Andrew's face, and the vagueness of his eyes indicated that he was no longer looking at the sky, or anything really. He was looking for Diana again, Quatre could feel it.   
  
"Don't worry. We know where she is. As soon as the majority of the troops move back out of the area, we can go in and get them."  
  
Andrew continued to stare into space, and Quatre wondered if he'd even heard him.  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
Duo paced back and forth across the narrow confines of the cell, wondering if it was possible that the cell was getting smaller, or if it just seemed that way because of the waiting. He'd never been great at waiting - he could do it, and appear more patient than anyone else (God knew he'd done it often enough in Deathscythe) but that didn't mean he liked it. And at least in Deathscythe he was in control, he knew what was coming, and he could prepare for it.   
  
Well, he knew what was coming here, too, in a general sort of way. It had been nearly six hours since the soldiers had taken Diana away, and he knew that they'd bring her back when they were done with her, assuming she was still alive. She ought to be, she was tough enough, but you never knew... He was more worried about her mental state. He'd grown up on the streets of L2, he knew the look in the guard's eyes when they came for Diana. He'd half-expected them to come after him, but then again, Diana was phenomenally beautiful - she'd been designed that way, and given the choice between his scrawny ass and her, he could see why they'd chosen her. But the choice didn't make him happy - he'd grown up on L2, he could deal with rape - she was an ambassador's daughter, not the sort of person that knew about such things. She's also the leader of a Rebel organization who was in the hands of the enemy for months, he reminded himself. She's not the naïve fool that Relena is. Still, he worried.  
  
Suddenly the door was open, and while his eyes were mostly blinded by the sudden light, a figure was pushed through. The figure stumbled once, then righted itself. As his eyes cleared, Duo could see that it was Diana, arms still cuffed in front of her, wearing nothing but the loose black shirt she'd worn for the mission in the other universe. It barely covered her, but the fact that she wore nothing else was evidence enough of what had happened.  
  
Diana was silent for a moment, gazing steadily at him with no hint of emotion in her eyes. She walked a few feet over to the wall and then gracefully dropped to her knees, leaning against the wall and arranging her shirt so that it covered as much as possible. "We're not going to be able to escape today," she said quietly. "Sorry, but they worked me over pretty well, and I need a day or two to heal. I don't think there's any internal bleeding, aside from the obvious, but I don't want to take any chances. We can leave tomorrow."  
  
Duo wasn't sure what to say. "Diana... are you..." he hesitated before using the words 'all right', because he knew from personal experience that she wasn't 'all right' and probably wouldn't be for some time, but he wanted to know how bad it was.  
  
"I'm fine. Well, not fine, but I'll live." Her voice was still perfectly calm, and her eyes were clear of any emotion.  
  
Duo didn't believe a word of it.  
  
Some of what he was thinking must have showed on his face, because she continued. "Really, I am fine - well, as fine as I always am after torture. This emotionless calm was engineered into me - I can't help that. But I will live. This isn't the first time this has happened to me," she added as an afterthought, still with that eerily blank expression. "The Alliance held me for months, trying to break me with every torture method they knew. Gang rape was one of them. But I'd prepared myself - it was just another form of torture to me."  
  
"How do you do that?" he asked, trying to keep her talking.  
  
"Certain self-hypnotic techniques work," she responded mechanically. "And the fact that I wasn't a virgin when they did it. I made sure that my first sexual experience was at least marginally pleasurable, so the experience didn't sour me on sex altogether." She smiled faintly. "As you've probably guessed from my relationship with Andrew."  
  
"How?" Now he wasn't just asking to keep her talking - he wanted to know what the hell she had done. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.  
  
"Dev. He was the only one I trusted enough. I didn't have the boys yet, there was no one else. He's a lot stronger than most people give him credit for. I don't know if I could have done what he did in the same circumstances - I looked like a child at the time. A pretty child, but he's no pervert. I was only twelve, when I took command of the Rebels, I knew that I was exposing myself to more danger, knew that the Alliance might catch me someday... So I asked him. He refused at first, but I can be very convincing when I want. It still wasn't easy for him, but it got the job done, and I didn't break later. That's why he's still a little sensitive about that particular subject around me, especially after what happened to me on the Alliance base."  
  
"Aw shit," Duo said, remembering some of the tricks he'd convinced Kane to play on Dev.   
  
"It's all right, he realized that you didn't mean anything by it. He was irritated, but nothing more," Diana assured him, a little bit of life returning to her eyes.   
  
Duo turned bright red as he remembered that Diana had seen one of those little notes. "I... ah..." he stammered, for once at a loss for words. "I'm sorry..."  
  
Diana actually smiled at his predicament. "It's fine, really. I need people to act normal around me. I'd be more upset if you or Kane or Dev or anyone else suddenly started treating me as if I was made of glass or something, that would upset me. Dev knows that you didn't know, and neither does Kane."  
  
"He doesn't? Who does?" Unlike his little group, their doubles were all extremely close, and shared just about everything. That was a very big difference - except for between the couples, his group shared very little.  
  
"Andrew knows, of course, and I think Brian and Devin know too. Devin saw me when they first rescued me and Brian makes it his business to know things like that. Kane doesn't know, neither does Shin or the rest of my command staff." She frowned. "I need to get back at the next juncture. They can make it a day or two without all of us, no more. I should do something about that," she added thoughtfully, and you didn't have to be a genius to see that her mind was already far away from what had just happened to her. She really didn't care. Amazing.  
  
Suddenly she turned her head towards the door, and a few seconds later it opened, flooding them both with light, but whoever it was waited long enough for their eyes to adjust. While they waited, both Duo and Diana stood up, Diana pulling at her shirt to give herself maximum coverage. When his eyes did clear, Duo gasped and took a step back, recognizing the masked face of Zechs Marquise. "That's Zechs Marquise, the Lightening Count," he murmured to her, hoping she remembered him from their discussions.   
  
"He's Dev's..." she trailed off, leaving him to fill in the rest of the question, and not giving any useful information to the Oz soldiers.  
  
"Yes, but he's not on our side," Duo murmured as quietly as he could. "Remember that."  
  
Diana nodded slightly, her eyes fixed on the double of the man she'd trusted enough to take her virginity at age 12. He had no idea what was going through her mind right then, and he didn't have any time to figure it out, because Zechs stepped into the room, looking first at Duo, then at Diana. Duo cursed him for wearing the stupid mask - he couldn't even tell if Zechs was really looking at Diana, because he couldn't see his eyes.   
  
He saw the corners of Zechs mouth turn down slightly as he observed Diana's half-clad state (or so Duo guessed) but he didn't comment on it. "Bring the girl," he instructed, and turned and left, his cape fluttering behind them.  
  
Diana glanced once at Duo then followed obediently, and once more Duo was left by himself in the dark, wondering why he was being left out of so much.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
Treize had just barely settled himself into his seat in the office that had been vacated for him when Zechs arrived with their prisoner. It had none of the opulence of his usual quarters, but he didn't intend to stay here very long. This base's prison facilities were close to nonexistent - the pair they'd caught had been locked in an empty room with a lock on the outside - that was the closest thing to a cell here. Completely insufficient for holding a Gundam pilot and whoever this girl was. He intended to move them to one of his military bases as soon as he'd taken a look at this girl, to see what she was made of. Was she merely an innocent who had somehow gotten caught up in this, or was she something else?   
  
He gave permission to enter, and the door opened. Zechs marched through and took up a position at his side. He was followed by two guards holding guns, and then a young girl - she couldn't be older than fifteen - walked in. She was astonishingly beautiful, despite the oddity of her coloring. Her hands were bound together in front of her, and she was wearing nothing but a large black shirt that barely reached the tops of her thighs. Treize's lips tightened with displeasure - it looked as if his fears had been legitimate. He nodded to Zechs, who, after a moment, took the long coat he'd worn on the way over and slung it over her shoulders. She didn't even look at him - a cool expression on her face, she merely raised her manacled hands to adjust it slightly, so that it covered more of her.   
It didn't cover all of her, but it did a better job then the shirt did, and once she'd adjusted it, she let her hands fall back down, which covered even more of her. All through this, she looked neither at Zechs nor Treize, keeping her eyes fixed on a point in space right in front of her, a disinterested expression on her face. Not an innocent caught by accident, then, he decided. An experience player of the game. His interest was piqued.   
  
"I apologize for the actions of my men," he said, leaning back as far as he could in the chair while not appearing to slouch. "I gave orders that all prisoners were not to be touched," he said, stretching the truth slightly.   
  
"If you believe that will keep your soldiers from abusing prisoners, you're more of a fool than you look," she replied with a toss of her head that sent her long braid flying.  
  
"And just how much of a fool am I?" he asked, torn between amusement at her audacity and anger at her rudeness. He stared as for a moment her eyes flashed with a vivid emotion - complete hatred - before they returned to their blank state.   
  
"I wouldn't know - I've never met you before. But anyone who gives such an order and expects it to be followed is a fool," she replied casually, throwing out the words as if she really didn't care what he thought. Maybe that was the truth, but he doubted it.  
  
"Why do you bear such hatred for one you claim to have never met?" he asked in a polite voice, watching carefully for a reaction. There was - a slight flicker of something in her eyes before she regained control.  
  
"I know you only by reputation, sir. I bear you no personal enmity. No more than anyone else who had me captured, beaten, and raped."  
  
"Your eyes beg to differ."  
  
This time she had full control of herself, and her eyes did not change as she steadily regarded him. "You remind me, vaguely, of a personal enemy of mine. It was to his memory that I was reacting, not your own. My apologies."   
  
Treize barely stopped himself from raising an eyebrow. She was more skilled than he'd thought. Her first comments had been honest, made in a fit of anger, but now she'd managed to cover for that quite neatly, and he didn't know if it was the truth or not. It could very well be - he didn't remember ever meeting her, and she was distinctive enough for him to think he would remember if he had, but at the same time he distrusted this conclusion. He couldn't believe that she'd just give him the truth, it was too neat. So then what was the truth.  
  
"And you have my apologies on your... treatment," he said, choosing to glaze over what had been done to her in a way that she hadn't. "If you need medical treatment please say so and I will have some of Oz's doctors see to you."  
  
There was a flash in her eyes again before she primly replied, "That will not be necessary."  
  
"Very well. I look forward to talking to you further."  
  
She sniffed slightly and averted her eyes, as if he was too insignificant for her to notice. "If that's what you want."  
  
"It is. Zechs, please see that the young lady and her companion are transported back to the Crifton Base - separately - as soon as possible."  
  
"Yes sir," Zechs murmured, then nodded to the guards, who took her by the upper arms to guide her out of the room. She took two steps before shrugging them off to walk by herself.   
  
"Quite an interesting young woman," Treize observed as soon as the door had closed. "Do we have any idea who she is?"   
  
"One of the soldiers who captured them thought he heard pilot 02 call her Diana right before they were captured," Zechs offered. "Other than that our searches have come up blank. And we did find something unusual in the base."  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"A hole in one of the walls."  
  
Treize frowned. "The Gundam pilots tend to leave a lot of holes in buildings, if they leave anything at all. Why do you mention it?"   
  
"They usually use explosives to do it."  
  
"What?"  
  
"There was no explosion used. The closest the soldiers could come to describing it was that it was as if someone tore a hole in the wall with their bare hands."  
  
Treize's frown deepened. "I want to know how that happened."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
Trieze returned to the original topic of conversation. "What is your impression of her?"  
  
"She hates you, and it goes beyond mere transference. And... she dislikes me as well, although I do not know why. But it is not the hate that she bears for you, Treize. I would be much happier if you did not talk with her again." The tone of his voice indicated that he already knew this was a hopeless quest.  
  
"She intrigues me, Zechs," Trieze told him. "She is a contradiction. What she went through would have broken many men, and she's just a child, and she just shook it off. She's played the court games, but she's a fighter, too. And no one knows who she is. This could be played to our advantage, if we can find out who she is and what her connection to the Gundam pilots is."  
  
"And who those others are," Zechs reminded him with a frown. "And who it was that the soldiers thought was you. There is far too much here that is unknown. Do you want me to try to force answers out of either of them?"  
  
"No."  
  
"No?"  
  
"You've seen them both. You've fought pilot 02. Do you really think that you could force information out of him?"  
  
"And the girl?"  
  
"Don't touch her. Not yet. I am... intrigued by her. Let me try to get the information out of her another way." He could practically feel his subordinate's frustration. "Is there something wrong?"  
  
"I'm just remembering the last time you decided that someone was intriguing. We ended up sleeping with him."  
  
"Are you complaining?" Treize asked patiently.   
  
Now Zechs did sigh in frustration. "No, of course not, but you must admit it's complicated things. I don't know if this is a good idea..."  
  
"She is a beautiful child," Treize remarked, not really meaning it. He got the distinct pleasure of seeing Zechs' mouth drop open in utter astonishment.   
  
Once, twice Zechs' mouth opened and closed. "Please don't tell me you're serious."  
  
"No. One illicit, underage lover is enough for me," Treize replied with a low laugh. "But I do want to try to get information out of her my own way, first."  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Shin cursed. He'd stolen a normal colored shirt to go over the pure black he had worn for the mission. At least it hadn't been a jumpsuit - that would have been harder to explain. He'd also stolen sunglasses to hide his all-white eyes, but it didn't seem to matter. Already the enemy soldiers were out combing the streets, looking for him. He'd seen the pictures they were circulating. So far he'd managed to elude them, but for how long? His eyes fixed on an Oz truck that was coming down the road towards him. Well, it was a way out of here, and it was headed away from the base. He'd spent more uncomfortable days before this, and would again. He quickly ran up to the truck as it slowed down and then swung himself under it, clinging to the bottom and pulling his body up against the bottom to keep himself from being seen.   
  
After a few seconds, the Oz soldiers who were supposed to be searching all vehicles leaving the city cleared the truck without so much as a glance at the underside. Sloppy. Very, very sloppy, but he wasn't going to complain. Of course, he was now stuck where he was. Getting off of the rapidly moving vehicle was more trouble than it was worth right now, and he had no desire to trek through the wilderness for days to get to another city, one less infested by enemy agents. However, this did require him to hang onto the underside of the truck for several more hours. Usually when he did this sort of work he had along some sort of equipment with which to brace himself. Hanging here with just his muscles holding him up was going to be a challenge.  
  
But not impossible. Shin knew his design specifications would allow for the strain. It wouldn't be fun, but he could hang on for over twelve hours if he had to. Gritting his teeth, he settled in for the ride.  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
Brian silently marveled as he looked through the schematics that were being displayed on the screen inside the Gundam. This was about the only place that he was going to find Gundam blueprints, Trowa had told him. Good planning on their part - he definitely approved. It was because Diana had full access to the Alliance's computers, and because the Alliance put so many of their project and orders and information on those same computers that they'd been able to take Alpha colony from the Alliance. Knowledge was power.   
  
While it was still amazing to think of a world that had been at war for two hundred years, he was beginning to believe it. They might not have discovered faster than light travel, but what they hadn't done in *peaceful* scientific discoveries they'd more than made up for with what they'd created in these massive machines of destruction. The technology behind them was astounding - the programming alone, just to allow the machines to walk and fight was far beyond anything robots in his world could do. On the other hand, they were still in this solar system, they hadn't advanced nearly as far in the field of genetics as his world had. The very advances that had brought about his existence hadn't occurred on this world. There was no possibility that Oz or anyone else would create something like him. The thought was comforting.  
  
On the other hand, two hundred years of war wasn't good for anyone. Brian never thought that he would be grateful to the Alliance for anything, but they had brought stability to the galaxy. They were firmly in control on Earth, and on most of the colonies. While the Rebels fought back, most of the fighting was limited enough that it didn't affect the everyday lives of the majority of the population. The same couldn't be said for ordinary citizens here.   
  
He exited the files and then carefully shut down the system, locking it down so that no one except Trowa or himself (or someone else who knew the codes) would be able to get inside. He was beginning to understand what a sacrifice it had been for Trowa to allow him access to his Gundam. The huge machine was more than just a tool, more than just a weapon. It was... part of him, somehow, and him letting Brian learn on it... it was like the five of them letting an outsider in their group. He didn't think about it much, but when it came down to facts, Diana was not part of that group. She had a unique relationship with them as a group and individually because of what she was, but she wasn't really part of their group, at least not in his mind. They'd been raised together by the Alliance in exactly identical circumstances (to preserve the integrity of the project), and she hadn't. No one could understand what it had been like... no, that wasn't quite right. Diana could understand, but she hadn't been there, and it wasn't the same. There was something about living with people for fourteen years, almost without any breaks, that couldn't be duplicated. He knew them, and he didn't... he still didn't understand emotions at all, but they'd been together so long that it didn't really matter.  
  
Diana knew this - knew that she was apart, and that there was nothing she could do about it. She accepted this the way she accepted everything else that life had thrown at her, shoving away her personal feelings, thinking through and understanding the problem, accepting the fact that she couldn't do anything about it, and then moving forward. He suspected she'd done this when she first realized how different her mind was from a human's, again when she realized her body was not normal either, when she was pressed into taking control of the Rebels, when she found out about them... There was a long list, and that was only the most obvious things. He probably didn't know half of the things that life had thrown at her - she was a very private person, trained herself to be that way. He doubted even Andrew knew all of her secrets. He only knew this because he'd seen the last time life smacked her, when she found out from Andrew that the Alliance had killed her father while she was in captivity.   
  
He'd seen the emotion drain from her face as the triggers her creators had implanted kicked in, saw flickers of emotion in her eyes as she struggled against herself, and then... calm acceptance. He knew this wasn't a normal response, or anything close to a healthy human response, but they weren't human, and no one wanted to face her when she did it. She was the only being alive who could cow him, and he wasn't talking about physically. She was the only one of them who'd been raised as a human, and she was the only one who could smooth things between the five of them and the human Rebels. They'd been without her for six months when the Alliance captured her, and although we managed, it was not easy. They needed her, and she knew it, accepting that it separated her from them with a wall that could never be breached, because it was *necessary*.  
  
How many times had Andrew said that he hated that word, because she used it so often? She did what was necessary, and never complained. She understood that she would never really be one of them, accepted it, and then built a different type of relationship with them. He'd spent a good deal of his free time analyzing their group, analyzing Diana, analyzing the humans they worked with. It was something like a hobby, but more intense, closer to an obsession for him. He saw the connections, saw their group, saw the way Diana interacted with different groups, how she changed her speech patterns and attitudes at will, almost automatically, so that people understood her, he saw all of that, but he couldn't understand how she knew what to do, because he couldn't understand emotions. He had a thought floating around in the back of his mind that if he watched long enough, one day he might understand. Until then, he observed every type of human interaction he could find.   
  
All of which brought him back to Trowa allowing him access to the Gundam. He realized that none of the Gundam pilots were prime examples of normal humanity, but he didn't really care. He was observing all types of humanity, not just the norms. The relationship Trowa had with the other pilots and his Gundam was... unusual. If what he'd heard and observed was correct, the Gundam pilots were a team, but not the way the five of them were. The Gundam pilots were used to working on their own, at least at first. While they were capable of working together, they relied on themselves first. That was the opposite of his team. They always assumed that they'd be able to lean on each other - they could operate on their own and had, but they always knew the group was there, too. A subtle but very big difference.   
  
And the way they treated their Gundams... it was as if they'd assigned personalities to their Gundams, especially Duo and Wufei. Maybe that was the result of the way they were alone, the way they kept themselves apart where his team drew together. Maybe it was more than that. He tossed the idea around in his head for a moment as he sat in the silent cockpit of the Gundam. Maybe the 'personalities' that the Gundams had were more along the lines of hidden parts of their own personalities that they either wished to face or reject. The thought had possibilities, based on the evidence he'd seen, but not for all of them. Wufei, for example. It was more likely he was trying to punish himself for something than revealing a hidden part of his personality. Heero, well, he was the only human Brian had ever met who came close to his lack of emotion and drive to complete the mission without any regard to personal well being. It was... interesting to see that in another person.  
  
His attention was diverted away from the interesting but ultimately useless pastime when the light indicating a waiting message started to flash. Brian immediately stood up and jumped to the ground with no regard to the distance. "You have a message," he told Trowa, who was cleaning his gun.  
  
Trowa nodded silently and climbed up the side of his Gundam to reach the cockpit. He looked at whatever the message was for several minutes before climbing back down.   
  
"There were two messages. I have a mission, and I received a communiqué from the others. They're at a safe house right now - I can give you directions on how to get there before I leave for the mission. I will return there after we complete our mission."  
  
Brian nodded, not surprised that Trowa wasn't going into any more details.   
  
"Quatre and Kane managed to steal a mobile suit and got together with the other group, and they all made it safely to the safe house, but Shin is still missing, and both Diana and Duo were captured by Oz. They've just been moved to a more heavily guarded base. Your friends are working on a plan to get them out."  
  
Brian nodded again, seeing no need to comment out loud, so he didn't. After a moment Trowa dropped to his knees and started drawing symbols in the ground. "A crude map," he explained after a moment. "I have to leave right away, and I have no paper. You'll have to memorize this."  
  
Brian nodded again, having already fixed the image in his mind. It didn't matter, he had a perfect memory anyway. "Walk that way," Trowa gestured. "Five miles, you'll come to a road. From there it's about ten miles to a town called Benton. Take the main road out of Benton for thirty-two miles, and there is a small road, not much more than a dirt path, to right. Take that to the end and you'll find the safe house. If you can hitch a ride part of the way, do it. It's almost fifty miles total. I've told them you're coming - someone may come out to meet you, or they might not." Trowa's voice evidenced no preference for either choice - he was just stating the options.   
  
"Hn," Brian finally commented, nodding once more as he stood up. He looked around the 'camp' to see if there was anything he needed. Seeing nothing, he nodded once towards Trowa and then started off into the woods at what was, to him, a moderate jog. Anyone else would have called it an all-out sprint. He didn't bother to look back, but if he had, he would have seen Trowa quickly climbing back into his Gundam and taking off, wasting no more time on meaningless goodbyes than he did. They both had their missions to perform.  
  
  
  
  
Sorry I got so introspective on this last part. I knew that I had to have at least one section more with Brian and Trowa, but once I got there, I realized it was almost the same as putting Heero and Trowa together - they just don't feel the need to chatter to cover silences, or to talk at all, or to communicate beyond the bare necessities. That almost ended up being the first section I've ever written without any dialogue at all. But it did get kinda interesting - I didn't realize Brian had all that going on in his head. Still waters run deep, I guess. Once I get them back with the others it will get better, I think - no more endless silences.   
C&C welcome.  



	8. Part 7

Duo was not happy. It had been three hours since the Oz soldiers grabbed him out of his cell, stuck a hood over his head, shoved him into some transport, brought him to this cell, and left him alone. He had no idea what had happened to Diana. They'd taken her away, and she'd never returned. He might have thought she was dead, but he had the feeling that little less than a Gundam would be able to take her down. So where was she? For that matter, where was he?   
  
He was assuming that it was another Oz base, one much more secure than the one where they'd been captured, but they'd traveled over an hour by plane. At least that's what it had sounded like. An hour by plane was enough time to go a good distance... or they could have been circling, to thrown him off. Add to that the fact that he hadn't been very certain of his location to begin with, and he could be just about anywhere on Earth. Great.   
  
As Duo sat by himself in the dark, completely ignorant of his situation and that of Diana, he reflected on how much life could suck.  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
"How did the mission go?" Andrew asked as Heero marched past him, heading upstairs to his laptop, undoubtedly to make his report. What was surprising was that there was a hint of a frown on his face - assuming that he was like Brian when it came to showing emotions, Heero was absolutely furious. Andrew's question was directed at Quatre, who came in right after Heero, holding onto his left arm with his right. His left sleeve was drenched with blood. Andrew immediately shot to his feet, but Quatre shook him off.  
  
"No. Go help Trowa!"  
  
"Devin!" Andrew shouted as he ran outside. Devin was their doctor - they were all medic-trained, but Devin's interest in medicine had left him knowledgeable enough to earn his PhD if he'd wanted. Andrew climbed up the side of Trowa's Gundam - it had to be Trowa's, it was the only one he didn't recognize - in a few seconds, and was waiting when the hatch popped and Trowa stumbled out, his eyes more glazed than usual, probably due to the head wound that had blood streaming down the side of his face.   
  
"All right, come on," Andrew said, picking up Trowa in his arms before jumping down, which was the fastest way he could think of to get him to the ground. He landed in a crouch to cushion the fall for Trowa, then carried him into the house at a run. Devin was inside, already wrapping a bandage around Quatre's arm, but he stopped as soon as he saw Trowa, handing the rest of the bandage to Quatre.   
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Head wound. I didn't get a good look at it yet."  
  
"Get some water. I've got to get some of this cleaned out of his hair before I can take a look at the wound," Devin instructed as Andrew set Trowa down on the couch. "What happened?" he asked Quatre, who had finished wrapping up his arm and was now standing there, looking at Trowa, a pained expression on his face.   
  
"It was a trap. We were betrayed, somewhere," Quatre said quietly, his face very pale and emotionless. Andrew heard this comment as he came back from the kitchen with a pot of water and several towels. He extended his senses towards Quatre and was shocked by the cold fury that gripped his double. He wouldn't have thought that nice, gentle Quatre could even understand those emotions, much less have them himself. It seemed his protective streak ran deep, especially where Trowa was concerned. "We were lucky to get out of there at all. That's what Heero's doing - he's hacking into Oz's database, to find out how they knew we were coming." He turned as Wufei came in. "Wufei! Are you all right?"  
  
Wufei growled something in Chinese that Andrew missed, but he didn't miss the fact that his arms were wrapped around his chest, or that he winced slightly with every breath. "Let me see your ribs," he said authoritatively. He might not be qualified to be a doctor, but he was medic-trained. He ought to be able to diagnose the problem at least.   
  
Wufei grumbled but allowed them to strip off his shirt, barely holding back a gasp of pain as they did so. As carefully as he could, Andrew probed Wufei's ribs with his very sensitive fingers. "Not broken," he finally decided. "But at least two of them have minor fractures, and the rest are probably bruised. I think we've got some ointment that will do something for the pain, and then the only thing we can do is wrap it up."   
  
"Do it," Wufei grunted through gritted teeth.   
  
By the time Andrew finished treating Wufei, Devin had finished cleaning up Trowa's head and was in the process of stitching him up. "How is he?" Andrew asked as Wufei disappeared into his room, probably to sleep. They were tough, but they weren't like him or his brothers - they were still human, and anyone but them probably would have collapsed long before now.   
  
"Mild concussion and a fairly deep laceration. I'm stitching that up now. He's going to need rest, but he should be fine in a few weeks. They heal faster than most humans. Not as fast as us, but still pretty fast. He'll be fine." This last comment was directed at Quatre, who was still hovering over Trowa. "You lost a lot of blood. You should rest, too."  
  
"After we get Trowa into bed," Quatre said firmly. "Thank you for your help."  
  
Devin only nodded, then easily picked up Trowa and carried him upstairs to the room (and bed) that he and Quatre shared. Andrew was beginning to get used to the idea that his double and Devin's were sleeping together, but it still struck him as strange that the brotherly love he and Devin shared was something more physical here. Very strange.   
  
As if meeting your human double from another world and then traveling to their world wasn't strange enough on it's own.   
  
"What's going on? Where is everyone?" Quatre asked, following Trowa with his eyes.   
  
"Kane went off to pick up Brian, so he doesn't have to run the entire way. Wufei is in bed, Heero is upstairs, we still don't know where Shin is, and Duo and Diana are still being held by Oz. Now you have to rest. And eat something when you wake up."  
  
Quatre turned and slowly started climbing the stairs. "What? I don't think we have any food here."  
  
"I'll make something."  
  
Andrew followed Quatre up the stairs, watching him very carefully. His senses told him that his double was dangerously close to collapse. Somehow Quatre made it up the stairs and collapsed on the bed beside Trowa, throwing one arm over his partner's chest. He was asleep almost before his head hit the bed.   
  
Andrew shot a look at Devin, arranged Quatre so that his legs were not hanging off the bed and then walked out of the room, turning off the light and closing the door behind him.   
  
"You realize what you just did?" Devin asked him as they walked back down the stairs.  
  
"What?" Andrew asked as he picked up the bloody cloths that were left over from Devin's ministrations.   
  
"You said that we'd cook," he said flatly. There was nothing in his tone to suggest that it was an accusation, but it was.  
  
"Well, I was trying to get him upstairs," Andrew defended himself.  
  
"You said that we'd cook."  
  
"We'll get something that doesn't require actual cooking," Andrew assured him. It was patently ridiculous, that genetically designed weapons couldn't cook their own meals. But there'd never been a need or occasion to learn - at the Alliance base, all they ever ate were nutrient bars, and now that they were with the Rebels, someone (he honestly didn't know who) cooked their meals for them. So they didn't know how to prepare their own food, other than the obvious - don't eat stuff raw, and black isn't good either. "Sandwiches or something."  
  
"You said we'd cook."  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
Diana was confused. It was not a condition that afflicted her very often, and she wasn't enjoying the experience. She hated Adam Velanz with an emotional intensity that had yet to be matched anywhere else. She hated him because he'd killed her father to get to her, she hated him for what he'd done to Andrew and the others, she hated him for what he'd done to her, and she hated him for what he'd done to the colonies, the thousands of lives he'd destroyed. There was no hesitation, no wavering about her thoughts on this matter.   
  
So when she had met Velanz's double on this world, she had been completely prepared to hate him as well. What she hadn't been expecting was the possibility that he might be an actual person, instead of a monster like Velanz. He was cool, controlled, and like Velanz, his eyes didn't show much of what he was really thinking, but they didn't have the emptiness that she'd come to associate with that face. Even stranger, she didn't think he'd been lying when he apologized for the actions of his men. His face his been a perfect mask when he said that, but she could hear heartbeats when she wanted to, and his hadn't changed in the slightest, indicating that he probably wasn't lying. He actually had been sorry, at least a little. Strange.   
  
Even stranger was the way that she'd been treated since her meeting with them Someone had gotten her a pair of pants, and she hadn't been touched. No drugs, no beatings, nothing. Very strange. Somehow she was having a hard time picturing Treize Khushrenada as the cold-blooded killer that she knew Velanz was. A killer, certainly, cold at times, definitely, but not the sort of man who'd slaughter innocent civilians to help his organization - whatever it was - gain power.   
  
Another oddity. The political maneuverings of the factions on this world were mind-boggling. Oz was made up entirely of military personnel, but it was a political organization as well. It had taken the place of something called the Earth Sphere Alliance, if she remembered overheard conversations with the Gundam pilots correctly, but that Alliance hadn't been a world government, like hers. It was an organization that represented the multiple Earth-governments. There were still many Earth-governments, and Oz too, plus whatever the colonies here had for governments. Well, she could say one good thing about the Alliance from her world - having one massive government in charge of everything did simplify the issue.   
  
So what was Khushrenada planning? Why hadn't he even tried to torture her for information? At this point, all she wanted was to be stuck back in a cell with Duo so that she could get them both the hell out of here, where-ever they were. The various injuries she'd sustained hadn't been as bad as she'd thought, and there was no internal bleeding, so she was almost as good as new. As soon as she saw Duo again, they were leaving. It wouldn't be hard, given what she'd seen of their bases. They weren't made to stop someone like her - the walls were too thin, for one thing. All the walls of her cell in the Alliance base she'd been taken to had been at least three feet thick and reinforced with steel, and even then she'd been drugged most of the time and chained up. She probably could have escaped right now, but it was her fault that Duo had been captured in the first place, so she wasn't leaving him behind.   
  
So where did that leave her? Being escorted through the halls by several Oz soldiers, about to see the irritating Khushrenada again. Irritating because he was one of the few people she'd ever met whose motives she couldn't discern within a few minutes of meeting them.   
  
Was this all some sort of bizarre technique to soften her up for the interrogation she knew had to come eventually? She was more confused then she'd been in a long time, but being confused wasn't exactly a torture technique, and she couldn't see how this was possibly going to help them later, if it was a deliberate plot, which she doubted. Velanz played those sorts of mind games, and so did she, but to set all this up just to confuse her would have indicated a tremendous effort for little result, as well as a great deal of knowledge about her and the way her mind worked. Khushrenada didn't have that information. So this was all some sort of weird coincidence.   
  
Great. So now what was she supposed to do? She didn't think it would be a good idea to start randomly killing off any officers she could find. That would be the equivalent of letting Duo 'have fun' by assassinating random members of the Alliance. Sure, she'd probably get rid of some assholes who deserved it, but there was an equal chance (maybe) that she'd kill someone who might actually do some good. She'd wait until she could talk with Duo before she killed anyone.   
  
Her main goal right now was to be put back with Duo. And with that firmly in mind, she was escorted into the room where she'd do verbal gymnastics with Velanz's double, and try to resist the urge to beat him to death with her bare hands.   
  
-----------------------------------------  
  
Treize nodded slightly as the girl was once again brought into his presence. She'd cleaned herself up slightly and was wearing the pants that he'd ordered she be given. She gazed coolly at him for several seconds before letting her eyes travel briefly around his elegantly furnished office before returning her gaze to him. He forced himself not to react in any way as she studied him, although the regard was more than a little disturbing, especially with those all-white eyes.   
  
"I'm going to order the guards to leave," he said quietly. "If you misbehave, your companion will be punished."  
  
She gave no indication that she'd even heard him, but her eyes did slide momentarily to the guards as they left. She watched him silently for another minute, then casually seated herself in one of his chairs, crossing her legs demurely and carefully placing her manacled hands in her lap. She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him, smiling. Her eyes were vacant, her smile frighteningly devoid of thought. She looked just like any air headed teenager. But what was even more frightening was that an instant before she had been calm and controlled, without a hint of emotion in her eyes. Now she was acting like a (stupid) schoolchild.   
  
"So what are we going to do next, Mr. Khushrenada?" she asked in a high-pitched voice, and then the brainless look faded from her face as suddenly as it had appeared. "I'm assuming that if you aren't going to torture information out of me, then you're planning on trying to trick it out of me. Am I right?" she asked in a more normal tone.  
  
"You're a very observant young woman."  
  
She inclined her head towards him slightly, acknowledging the compliment, then her eyes traveled to Zechs, who was standing unobtrusively in the corner. "Is he an aide of yours? Second in command? He seems to follow you around a lot." It was clear that, unlike many, she didn't feel vulnerable because she was sitting while the other two were standing. That meant that he wouldn't be able to intimidate her using their comparative physical positions.   
  
"An aide of sorts," he said quietly.  
  
"Ah," she said, still studying him out of the corner of her eye. "Does he always wear that helmet thing?"   
  
"Yes."  
  
"Can he talk for himself, or do you always talk for him?"  
  
"How do you know pilot 02?" he asked, thinking that this question session had gone on long enough.  
  
"We got captured together," was the immediate response.   
  
"At least give me the courtesy of a believable response," he scolded. "It's obvious that you knew each other before we captured you. You were working together to get out of the base."  
  
"I said that we met when we got captured together," she responded easily, shifting in her seat just slightly, so that she could rest one of her elbows on the armrest. "I never said that it was when you captured us. We got captured together elsewhere, and decided that we had some things in common. So we stuck together."  
  
"I was not aware that any of the Gundam pilots were captured with you before now."  
  
"Well..." she trailed off and shrugged slightly. "There may be things in this world that you don't know," she finally said, a sarcastic edge to her voice.  
  
"Rudeness is not necessary."  
  
"Yeah, but it's fun," she said with a wicked grin.  
  
He blinked. She was switching personalities every several seconds, it seemed, and he was having a hard time keeping up. First she was cool and collected, then when she seated herself, her actions had reflected manners he expected of the children of diplomats and kings. Then there was that short episode while she was acting like a brainless idiot. Since then she'd gone back to cold and calculating, then back to the dinner-party persona, then a rude and sarcastic teenager, and now this childish tone...  
  
"I don't suppose you'd be interested in telling me your name?" he asked.  
  
She hesitated for a fraction of an instant, then replied, "Diana."   
  
"Diana what?"  
  
"Diana Dorlian."  
  
There was a sputtering noise from Zechs, and Trieze smiled humorlessly. "I don't suppose that would be Dorlian, as in Ambassador Dorlian?"  
  
"It would."  
  
"I happen to know the ambassador's daughter. Her name is Relena, and while you resemble her slightly, you most certainly aren't her."   
  
"Well, since you obviously know who I am, much better than I do, why are you bothering to ask me at all? Why don't you just divine the answers from wherever you produced that last one?" she asked sarcastically, switching gears again.  
  
He frowned slightly. She was acting as though an obvious lie was the just as obvious truth. He had to get her to stop switching personas like this - they weren't going to get anywhere this way. A glimmer of an idea occurred to him - something he'd planned for as a last resort, but she was proving more resourceful than he'd anticipated. This could work out both ways - it would show him what she really knew of high society, and he could use her against his many political enemies.   
  
"I have a proposition for you," he said walking around his desk to sit in his own chair, which was, incidentally, several inches higher than hers and much more comfortable as well.   
  
Her eyes narrowed slightly. Good, he'd caught her off-guard with that comment. "Yes?" she asked sharply.  
  
"I will take those off," he gestured smoothly to her wrists, "if you agree to accompany us," he nodded slightly towards Zechs, "to an official function."   
  
He expected her to accept at once, lured by an illusion of freedom, and was impressed when her eyes narrowed again and she didn't speak for several seconds. Finally she said, "You're a very shrewd player, aren't you, Mr. Khushrenada? You gain an advantage over me, and at the same time, I'm sure that you're planning to use me against some of your own enemies. Very good." She fell silent for several seconds, a thoughtful expression on her face. He was surprised how easily she'd seen what he was planning, and expected her to refuse his offer. "I have a proposition for you."  
  
Despite his attempts at self-control, he felt his eyebrows rising. "Yes?"  
  
"I'll go to this 'official function' of yours. I'll even behave myself. And I'll give you any information I pick up, too."  
  
He crossed his arms. "And how would you know what is important? From what I've seen, you aren't exactly in touch with the current political situation."  
  
"I'm not a complete idiot. I can tell a lie from the truth. And I can tell when people are trying to hide something. You have nothing to lose. If you don't believe me, you don't have to listen to anything I tell you. If I'm right, you might gain a few valuable insights."  
  
"And what do you want in return?"  
  
"I want to see my friend again. Pilot 02. I want a couple of hours to talk with him, alone. After that, you can separate us again, do whatever the hell you want, and we can keep playing this game for as long as you want."  
  
"Interesting proposal. What guarantee do you have that I won't accept your advice, and then not allow you your time with the pilot?"   
  
"The same guarantee that you have that I won't do my best to make you look like an idiot if you take me to this party, or whatever the hell it is. I'm pretty good at that, when I try, and chances are you wouldn't hear about it for weeks. So do we have an agreement? I behave myself at the party, give you whatever tidbits of information I pick up, and you let me see the pilot again?" She hadn't switched speech patterns in almost a minute now. So that was something of an advantage for him already.  
  
He nodded agreement, then reached into his desk and withdrew a remote. He pressed a sequence of buttons, careful to keep his hand out of her sight, and there was a barely audible click as the manacles came undone. She raised her arms and rubbed one wrist, then the other. Then she examined her right wrist very carefully, and rubbed it again.   
  
"Something wrong?" he asked.  
  
"Just had a slight injury," she responded calmly. "It's fine now." She stood up, catching the manacles as they slid off her lap before they could hit the floor. "I'm assuming that you have some clothing for me to wear? I have a feeling that showing up in this..." her gesture took in her current ensemble, "... is going to attract a little attention."  
  
"The box over there," Treize said, pointing.  
  
She raised an eyebrow. "You planned for this in advance." There was a hint of surprise in her voice. She walked over and opened the large box, pulling out the dress that was inside, wrinkling her nose in disgust.  
  
"Is there a problem?" he asked as she held the dress up to her body experimentally. It was light blue, a little longer than knee-length, and looked to be about her size.   
  
"No, this ought to fit. I just hate dresses in general. Pants are more comfortable. I don't suppose you'd know about that, though."  
  
"No," he replied, a hint of amusement in his voice. "I'm afraid I wouldn't."  
  
She stared at him expectantly. "Well? Are you going to turn around so I can have some semblance of privacy, or are you interested in a strip show?"   
  
"You aren't going to ask us to vacate the room?"  
  
"I don't really think you're going to do that, are you?" she asked rhetorically. "I don't think that you trust me that much. So are you going to turn around or not?"  
  
He chuckled to himself as he turned around, nodding at Zechs to do the same. "I'm surprised that you aren't more... hesitant."  
  
"You mean afraid," she observed from behind his back. "Of what? You? Should I be worried about protecting my virtue, such as it is?" She snorted. "I'm not ashamed of my body, and it doesn't mean that much. If I thought it had a chance in hell of succeeding, I'd offer to sleep with you in return for my freedom."  
  
"And why don't you think it would work?" he asked.  
  
"Because you like boys. You're probably more interested in your aide over there than you are in me," she said. "That's a thought. Are you sleeping together?"  
  
Treize stiffened. "I thought we agreed no more rudeness."  
  
"I never agreed to anything like that. I'll take that as a yes and leave it at that. You can turn around now."  
  
He turned and stared. It had been obvious before that she was pretty. What hadn't been obvious was just how beautiful she was. Now, in a dress, she was breathtaking as she ran a hand through her hair, pulling it out of the braid and letting it fall in waves around her face. The unusual coloring didn't detract from her beauty at all, rather it added to it. He didn't think that anyone could have created a more beautiful person if they'd tried. "How did you know?" he asked, realizing that trying to hide it from her was impossible.  
  
"It's the way you look at me," she said as she finished with her hair and looked down at the dress, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. "Do you have any shoes, or am I going barefoot?"  
  
"In the bottom of the box," he told her. "And what do you mean, the way I look at you?"  
  
"The way you look at me. You look at me as if I were... as if I were a piece of art. Beautiful, worthy of admiration, and completely useless, in terms of physical pleasure. I know lust when I see it, and you don't have the slightest bit of interest in me. Am I right?" she asked as she stepped into the high-heeled shoes. She walked experimentally across the room, showing that despite her declared dislike of fancy clothes, she was no stranger to them.   
  
He chose not to acknowledge her response.   
  
She walked back across the room and once again seated herself, arranging the skirts so that they fell in a graceful arc around her. "How long until we have to leave?" she asked alertly.   
  
"A few hours."  
  
"Great. I guess that means you're going to keep up this subtle interrogation until then?"  
  
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Duo wasn't sure what he was expecting when the guards finally returned with Diana, but he was absolutely certain that he wasn't expecting her to be shoved in, her hands still manacled in front of her, wearing what appeared to be a party dress, complete with high-heeled shoes. "Diana, are you..."  
  
"I don't want to talk about it," she growled. "If I have to spend another evening listening to disgusting, corrupt old men tell me how adorable I am, I'm seriously going to go on a killing spree." The way she said it told him that she wasn't joking in the least. "We're getting out of here now."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I'm going to punch through the wall."   
  
"You're joking." He stared in shock as she suddenly ripped her arms apart. There was a screeching sound as the chain between the two handcuffs ripped in half. Then she took her bare hands and ripped the manacles off her wrists, crunching the metal with her fingers. "You're not joking."   
  
It was one thing to hear her talk about how strong she was, it was another thing entirely to see a girl his own age tear metal apart with her bare hands.   
  
"Give me your hands."  
  
He held out his wrists, and watched as she tore the cuffs off, being careful not to hurt him in the process. "Ah, thanks."   
  
"Not a problem. Sorry it took me so long to get here. I had to convince Khushrenada to let me see you."  
  
"What? What does he have to do with this? Where have you been?"  
  
"I'll tell you after we're out of here," she said, walking over to the wall opposite the door. "There's a hallway on the other side of this wall. The hall leads directly to one of their hangers. Feel up to stealing something?"  
  
"Sure. How do you know this?"  
  
"I heard it last time they were taking me around," she said, kicking off the high heels. She raised a fist and punched the wall. Her hand came out unscathed, although it was covered in dust. There was a fist-sized hole in the wall. Diana examined the wall critically. "Pretty thin," she observed. "They make the walls a lot thicker on our world." She then proceeded to widen the hole, using her hands to tear away the concrete and occasionally kicking it with her bare feet to quicken the procedure. In less than a minute they had a hole in the wall large enough to climb through. "Let's go." She slid through the hole, tearing her dress in the process, and he followed her.   
  
They were in an empty hall. She immediately started running down it, and he followed her. She turned a corner and there was a slight sound. By the time he rounded the same corner, less than ten seconds later, she was standing over the unconscious bodies of two Oz soldiers. She tossed him a gun, presumably from one of the bodies. "They're still alive," Diana said to him, then looked at the door. "I don't suppose we should bother trying to hide my abilities anymore, should we?" she asked, and then kicked in the door.   
  
She walked into the room beyond it, presumably the hanger she had spoken of, the gun held in front of her. Duo hurried after her, wondering if she was suicidal. There were a dozen people inside, some of whom were technicians, some of whom were mobile-suit pilots. Only one of them got off a shot, and only a single shot before a bullet from Diana's gun hit him right between the eyes. "The next person who goes for a gun dies," she said in a calm voice. He got a good look at her - standing there in the torn remains of a party dress, barefoot, and holding a gun on a bunch of trained soldiers. If not for the completely controlled expression on her face and the coldness in her voice, it would have been almost funny.  
  
One of the soldiers obviously was looking at the dress and not her face, because he started to reach for his gun. A second later he was also dead on the floor.   
  
"Anyone else?" Diana asked, and the survivors all raised their hands in the air. "Cover them," she murmured to Duo, who already had his gun up and aimed at them.   
  
"What are you going to do?" he asked. He was as ready to kill as anyone, but it was one thing to commit acts of terrorism, another thing to kill people who had surrendered.  
  
"Just knock them out. They can't follow us."   
  
She walked around and knocked out all of their prisoners will a careful blow to the back of their heads. Then she looked at him. "Now what?"  
  
"Hey, I thought you had this all planned out!" he protested.  
  
"Nope. This was about as far as I'd gotten. I assumed that we'd steal a shuttle or something, but I forgot that you people don't use shuttles here," she gestured with disgust at the mobile suits in the hanger. "They are bigger than I'd thought. This is your world, not mine. What do you think we should do?"  
  
"How long you think we got until they figure out we escaped?"  
  
"Ten minutes, tops. Probably closer to five. And there are at least three other hangers, so disabling this one and running that way isn't an option."  
  
"Damn it. We'll be better off on foot than in one of these things," Duo gestured with disgust to the mobile suits.   
  
"So we go on foot."  
  
"Yeah, but I think I can set up a distraction before then," Duo said as an idea occurred to him. He grabbed onto one of the waiting lines and gave it a sharp tug. The line automatically began to retract, pulling him up to the cockpit. He climbed inside and began to program some simple movements into the mobile suit. You really needed a pilot to do any fighting, but they did have some programmable components, for long trips and that sort of stuff. It took him less than a minute to finish.  
  
"What did you just do?" Diana's voice asked from very nearby. He looked up and jumped to see her face right in front of him.  
  
"How the hell did you get up here?" he asked.   
  
"I climbed. What did you just do?"  
  
"I programmed the suit's automatic pilot to walk out that door and keep on going. It won't fool them for long, but it might buy us enough time to get away on foot. If nothing else it will cause some confusion."  
  
"Good idea. They're all programmed the same way?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I'll take some of them, then. You get the rest. We have four and a half minutes left." With that, she jumped off the suit, treating the thirty-foot-drop like it was nothing. He watched her use the line to get up into another suit, then shook his head and climbed down himself.   
  
It took them about three minutes more to program the five other mobile suits. "Go open the door," Diana called. "I'll activate them one at a time."   
  
Duo nodded and quickly activated the door controls. The huge doors opened, and the first mobile suit started lumbering out the door. That was when the alarms finally went off. Guess someone finally noticed we were missing, he thought, climbing up to activate another suit as she sent the second suit after the first. It took the two of them less than a minute to send all six suits outside. "Ready?" Diana asked, holding up her gun. She'd paled slightly when she got to the huge door and saw the sky, and he was afraid for a moment that they were going to a repeat of yesterday's performance, where she froze when she saw the sky.   
  
"You going to be OK?" he asked. If she wasn't going to be able to handle seeing the sky, they were going to have a very hard time getting anywhere.  
  
She nodded, her face still unusually pale, even for her. "I'll live. Just don't remind me of it. Are you ready?"  
  
Duo pulled his gun out of the back of his pants, where he'd stuck it. "Here goes nothing."  
  
Duo ran out first, keeping his head down and heading for the fence, assuming that Diana could rip it apart with little trouble. Beyond that he could see fields. Not good - it was a lot harder to lose pursuers in fields rather than woods. On the bright side, there was a lot of shouting and running around going on, but no one was paying any attention to them. The guards that should have been guarding the door were running in the opposite direction, although whether it was because they were going to get help or just because they were scared was debatable. They reached the fence without incident. "Can you tear us a hole?" he asked.   
  
She stared at it. "No."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I hear humming. How much do you weigh?"  
  
"Forty-three kilograms. What humming? And what does that have to do with anything?"   
  
"The fence is electrified. I don't know what the voltage is, but enough of that will kill me just as fast as a normal human. Come here."   
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because I'm going to toss you over the fence."  
  
"You're what?!"  
  
They both turned and looked as one of the mobile suits they'd hijacked crashed into another building. Suddenly several other mobile suits - obviously with pilots in them - appeared and started shooting at their suits. "You want to wait for them? I'm going to toss you as gently as I can over the thing, then jump over myself. Unless you want to try this with me jumping and you on my back. I'll warn you, if we do it this way, it's going to be close. I know I can jump that high on my own, I'm not sure if I can do it with the extra weight."  
  
"So you're just going to throw me over?"  
  
"Unless you can come up with a better way."  
  
He looked at the fence. It was fifteen feet high. He was not relishing the thought of getting thrown over an electrified fence and then dropping the fifteen-plus feet to the ground. But he didn't have a better idea.  
  
"If you miss and throw me into the fence I'll never forgive you," he promised.   
  
"I won't," she said, grabbing him under the arms. "Ready?"  
"What the hell... Go for it."  
There was sudden pressure under his arms and he was flying upwards. He automatically tucked his body into a ball as he soared over the fence and then rolled when he hit the ground to reduce the impact. Luckily he was mostly successful and didn't twist, sprain, or break anything. He got himself together as Diana backed up about twenty feet, her eyes fixed on the top of the fence. She got a running start and then dove over the fence, rolling when she landed, although she did it with much more control than he had.   
  
"Are you all right?" she asked.  
  
"Yup. You?"  
  
"I think I killed the dress," Diana remarked, looking down at what had been a dress half an hour ago. Now it was torn in a dozen places, stained with blood, dust, oil from scrambling around the suits, and now dirt from when she rolled in the mud. She'd also torn off about six inches around the bottom in preparation for the jump - no doubt she didn't want it to acidentally catch on the fence.   
  
"Where'd you get it?" he asked as they started wading into the cornfield.   
  
"Khushrenada gave it to me. He wanted me to go to some party with him."  
  
"And you did it?"  
  
"I said I'd go if he let me see you. That man is very fucked up."  
  
"You sound surprised," Duo said, grateful that it was late in the season, so that the corn was tall enough to completely hide them while they ran. They were making good time. They might even get far enough away that Oz wouldn't find them when they figured out where they'd gone.   
  
"Well, he's fucked up, but he's not a sociopath. He's not as bad as Velanz."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"He kept his word. And he really was sorry about what happened to me. Weird."   
  
They suddenly left the field and were standing on a dirt road. Diana looked down the road in either direction. "Why is their base in the middle of nowhere?" she asked.   
  
"People don't like having mobile suits too close to their homes. There have been some accidents in the past, and besides that, battles tend to range all around, not just at the bases, and that's not good for the neighbors." He frowned as he looked around. He was a child of the colonies, and the land down here tended to look the same to him, unless there were some pretty obvious differences, like mountains versus plains, or something like that, but this place looked familiar.   
  
"Oh." Diana was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Duo, I really hate to do this to you, but you've got to make the decisions here. I'm kind of concentrating on not panicking again. Pick a direction and lets go because if we stand here much longer, I'm going to lose it and go running back to that damned base just to get out from under the sky."   
  
He looked at her and for the first time noticed how tightly her fists were clenched, and how she steadfastly refused to look at anything except the ground or the air right in front of her. She was hanging onto herself, but just barely. "Oh. Sorry."  
  
"It's better when we're doing something. Just pick a direction and lets go. And then talk. It helps."  
  
That had to be the first time in his entire life that someone told Duo Maxwell to talk *more*. An opportunity not to be missed. "Sure! No problem! But there's one thing first... you see that forest over there?" he asked, pointing.   
  
She glared at him, presumably for making her look above knee level, then looked at the forest. "Yes. Why?"  
  
"Your eyesight's supposed to be better than ours, right?"  
  
"Yes," she growled.  
  
"Can you see a little beyond the forest? Are there a bunch of cliffs?"   
  
Diana stared at the forest, her eyes narrowing slightly. She stood absolutely still, her eyes widening and narrowing several times, for almost a minute, then closed her eyes and rubbed them. "Yeah, there are some cliffs there, at the edge of my range. You'd better have a damn good reason for asking me that. I'm going to have a headache for hours." She stopped to stare at Duo who was grinning madly. "What? Good news?"  
  
"I hid Deathscythe under one of those cliffs."  
  
"Deathscythe? That's your Gundam, right?"  
  
"Yup," he replied, grinning broadly. He couldn't wait to get back in Deathscythe - it had been way too long.  
  
"We have to walk all the way there?" she asked, a hint of panic in her voice. The two of them ducked back into the cornfield as a mobile suit flew overhead. They waited until it was gone, then he seized her arm and pulled her out into the road. She shivered, and he grinned at her, trying to make her think of something other than the sky.   
  
"It won't take too long, let's get going," he said encouragingly. She wanted talk, huh? He could do that. "Did you ever hear about how Heero and I met? I don't think you were there for that one, were you?"  
  
She shook her head.   
  
"Great! It was just after we first came to Earth..."  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
"They're both gone, sir," reported a very nervous soldier. "I've never seen anything like it. It was as if they tore through the wall with their bare hands. There isn't even any sign of explosives."   
  
"Yes, I understand," Treize said quietly. "You mentioned that already. I have your report. You're dismissed."   
  
The man saluted and left. "She could have escaped at any time," Zechs said.   
  
"Yes. That was her intent all along, to be put back with the boy," Treize said. It was obvious he was angry with himself. Five minutes earlier he'd been congratulating himself on taking the girl along to the party. Everyone there had been quite surprised and thrown off-guard by the sudden appearance of a beautiful and strange-looking young woman, and he'd done well. Add to that the observations she'd added on the ride back and it had been a very productive afternoon. Now it was clear she'd only been playing along with them the entire time. "I thought she was just worried about him."  
  
Zechs saw that Treize was a little preoccupied right now, and decided to point something out to him. Zechs had overseen the initial search for them, and had seen a few things that Treize hadn't. Very disturbing things. "Sir. What is important here is not that she knew she could escape, but that she did, and with apparent ease."   
  
Treize looked at him. "Ease?"  
  
Zechs smiled slightly. "Didn't you listen to the report? They broke out of their cell by... somehow... tearing a hole in the wall. We know neither of them had any explosives with them, and it stretching believability to say that they coincidentally were rescued less than five minutes after we put her in there with him. Especially since the reports from the survivors indicate that the two of them were alone when they reached the hanger."  
  
Treize looked at him, drawn out of his self-recriminations by curiosity. "You know something."  
  
"She is not what she seems. There was a camera outside the hanger through which they escaped, directed towards the electrified fence. Here are some stills from the recording, although I can show you the entire thing if you want." The pictures showed the pilot flying through the air over the fence, and then the girl following him. "Apparently she threw him over the fence and then jumped over herself, with little effort. The fence was fifteen feet high."   
  
Treize stared at the pictures. "How is that possible?"  
  
"She isn't a normal human, that's for sure. Possibly... changed, like pilot 01."  
  
Treize raised an eyebrow. "You're saying she's the one who..."  
  
"Punched through the wall."  
  
"Punched?"  
  
"There are indentations in the metal of the cuffs in the shape of fingers. Whoever got them off did so with brute force, using nothing but their hands."  
  
"We have to get her back. Is there any chance that this information can be suppressed?"  
  
"Not a very good one. There were too many witnesses, and too much evidence to hide what happened here for very long. Unlike the Gundam pilots, she seems to have no problems leaving people alive."   
  
"When Romafeller hears about her, they'll be looking for her too. They'd love her," Treize said, a faintly worried look on his face.   
  
"For people who designed mobile dolls, she would be a prize," Zechs agreed. "An assassin that looked like a little girl. They'd have a field day."  
  
"Which is why we must find her first. She may think we're the enemy, but she doesn't know about them yet."  
  
"She's friends with a Gundam pilot. I imagine she believes everyone's the enemy," Zechs remarked. He'd never admit it, but he was somewhat glad that she was gone. She bore a slight resemblance to his sister, just enough to make him very uncomfortable when she stripped in front of them. That together with the thoughtful looks she kept giving him... he repressed a shudder.   
  
The phone rang, and Treize picked it up. He listened for a few seconds, then thanked whoever was on the other end and sat down in his chair, a slightly stunned look on his face. Finally he turned to Zechs and said, "It appears that they've caught the man who was pretending to be me."  
  
  
  
Well, I spent some time putting extra spaces in between the paragraphs in an attempt to make this a little more readable, did it help?  



	9. Part 8

Quatre had finally left Trowa's side long enough to get something to eat. He stared doubtfully at the sandwiches that Andrew and Devin had prepared. He hadn't thought it was possible to mess up a sandwich, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to try some of the concoctions that they'd come up with. Who'd ever heard of a sandwich with raw fish, ham, peanut butter, and a half-dozen other things that he couldn't identify. With a slight shudder, he decided to make his own sandwich.   
  
"Not willing to try it either?" Wufei asked as he walked past him. Wufei was sitting at the table, a sandwich obviously of his own construction sitting in front of him.  
  
"How are your ribs?" Quatre asked.   
  
"Tolerable. Trowa?"  
  
"He woke up for a few minutes," Quatre said, sighing in relief. Despite Devin's assurances that Trowa would be fine, he'd worried a lot until Trowa finally woke up and spoke to him (coherently). Only after Trowa fell asleep again did he feel able to go and get the food that Andrew had been insisting he needed. "Has Heero come down yet?"  
  
"No, he's still hacking. I think Andrew went to help him a few minutes ago."  
  
"Heero let him help?" Quatre asked, startled. Heero, not exactly the most friendly of people at any time, was in a worse mood than usual, both because of the betrayal and because of Duo's capture, although it would be difficult to get him to admit it.   
  
"Andrew was muttering something about 'stronger than human' and 'maximum tolerances' last time I saw him," Wufei said. There was a sudden thud from upstairs, and Quatre jumped.   
  
"Omae o korosu."  
  
"Sure, whatever. Eat something, let me take a crack at it, and then you can kill me," said Andrew's voice. "Imagine what will happen if Duo comes back and you're half-dead from exhaustion."  
  
There was a growl, but several seconds later Heero came stomping down the stairs at the same time as Brian wandered in from the other room. Heero shot Brian a murderous glance and then looked at the sandwiches in disgust. He set about making one for himself, glancing at Brian every couple of seconds. Brian stared at him through blank eyes and finally remarked, "Its easier just to let him have his way. He always does, eventually." Then he shot a murderous glance at Quatre, as if it was his fault that his double acted that way.   
  
"You're not eating our sandwiches," said a quiet voice from the doorway.   
  
"Devin! I, ah..." Quatre floundered, trying to find a tactful way to say he was afraid their sandwiches were poisonous.  
  
"Wise decision."  
  
"Oh." Quatre wasn't sure how to respond to Devin downplaying his own sandwiches.   
  
Suddenly both Devin and Brian turned their heads in the same direction. "What is it?" he asked, sensing their sudden tension.  
  
"We hear something," Brian said. "Sounds like engines."  
  
"Engines?" Quatre asked.  
  
"Mobile suit," Heero growled, and it was truly astonishing how quickly five guns appeared at the announcement of that word.   
  
"Are the other suits hidden?" Devin asked.  
  
"Yes. They're hidden from view, but now we'll never get to them before this suit arrives," Wufei growled. Now Quatre could hear the sound. It was most definitely a mobile suit, but only one.  
  
"Why would they send only one?" he wondered aloud.  
  
"Could be a scout," Brian offered. "We should stay inside. There's only one of them now. If he's looking for us, he either won't see us or he'll have to get out of his mobile suit."   
  
Heero nodded his agreement. Heero and Brian positioned themselves on either side of the front door while the other three waited in the kitchen, guns still drawn, waiting for a sign that the suit was either going away or landing. It very quickly became apparent that it was not going away. Andrew appeared at the top of the stairs, gun also drawn. A silent shake of Devin's head and a short gesture told Andrew to stay there. They all heard the mobile suit land outside and shut down. There was silence for a few seconds, then someone knocked on the door.   
  
There was a several second wait, then a familiar voice said, "Duo, if I just spent the last hour stuck in the back of that thing and you took us to the wrong place, I'm going to kill you."  
  
"It's the right place!" Duo protested. "They might not be here. I told you I was only guessing!"  
  
Heero had the door open in a fraction of a second. "Duo?"  
  
"Heero!" Duo shouted happily, then struggled for breath as Heero grabbed him in a bone-crushing hug. "How you guys been?" he asked as soon as Heero loosened his grip enough for Duo to draw in a breath. Heero's eyes traveled up and down Duo's body multiple times, as if to reassure himself that all of Duo was still present.   
  
They didn't get to answer Duo's questions, because Heero let out a growl and dragged him off to one of the upstairs rooms, presumably to continue that examination in privacy.   
  
"Diana?" Andrew asked. Somehow he'd gotten down the stairs without anyone noticing, and was now standing in front of the door.  
  
Diana took a step into the building and immediately wrapped her arms around Andrew, digging her nose into the base of his throat. "It's good to see you again," she whispered, a glad smile on her face. She tilted her head up to kiss him.  
  
"You were frightened, I could feel it..." he said, the question in his voice.  
  
"The sky," she replied, a hysterical tinge in her voice. "It was the fucking sky I was so scared of. I'd never seen the sky without a dome in front of it and I panicked. That's why we got caught. I froze, and I managed to get Duo caught too." She let go of Andrew long enough to give Devin and Brian a quick hug. "Where are Kane, Shin, and Trowa?" she asked, obviously doing the math in her head.   
  
"Trowa's upstairs," Quatre offered. "Our last mission went bad. He sustained a head injury, but he'll be fine. He's just resting."  
  
"Kane went into town to find out what the local buzz is," Devin told her. "And we don't know where Shin is. We know he escaped Oz, but we don't know where he was."  
  
"He was with us," Diana said, glancing to where Duo and Heero had headed. "We got separated."  
  
"Diana," Andrew said slowly. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine, I just need to get out of these clothes. I need a shower. I can still smell them. I want to get rid of that."  
  
"Smell?" Andrew asked, his face paler than usual. "Oh, Diana..."  
  
She shook her head. "Not your fault, so don't go blaming yourself. I just... I need a good memory right now." She pressed her lips against Andrew's again.  
  
"Go," Brian said shortly.   
  
"Since when do I take your orders?" Diana asked, but there was a smile on her face. She pulled insistently at Andrew, much the way Heero had a few moments before. After a second he was running up the stairs with her.  
  
Quatre frowned. Where are they going?  
  
Devin's response was short and to the point. "Sex."  
  
Quatre blushed, although he knew for certain that Heero and Duo were probably doing the same thing in their room. He supposed it was one way of checking to make sure that the other person was in one piece, although not the most efficient way. But if it had been Trowa that had been captured, that was probably the way he would have done it, too. "What were they talking about, smell?" he asked to change the subject.  
  
Brian and Devin exchanged a glance. "Nothing."   
  
Quatre frowned. The two of them might be almost as stoic as Heero and Trowa, but he was an expert at reading not-expressions, and they were upset. "What is it?"  
  
"She wants to get the smell of the Oz soldiers off her," Devin explained. "She said the same thing when we rescued her from the Alliance."   
  
"Oz soldiers..." Quatre's mind raced ahead and came to a horrible conclusion. "Oh no!" Beside him, Wufei cursed.   
  
"She'll live," Devin said shortly. "She's survived before and she will again. But it helps her if Andrew is there. Don't tell anyone. Shin and Kane don't know."   
  
"Why not?"  
  
"She doesn't want people to treat her differently because of it."   
  
"Oh."  
  
Devin glanced outside, where Deathscythe was clearly visible. "Someone had better hide that."  
  
Quatre looked at Wufei, each of them debating the fit that Duo would throw when he found out someone had touched Deathscythe with the trouble they'd get if Oz found them. Duo had become a little sensitive about anyone touching Deathscythe without his permission ever since Heero used parts from Deathscythe to fix Wing. Quatre reluctantly decided that Oz would be worse. "I'll do it," he said with a sigh. It wasn't like he was going to take it into battle or anything. Duo would understand. He hoped.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Kane carefully arranged himself so that it looked like he was watching a basketball game between a bunch of local kids, but all of his attention was directed on listening to a conversation thirty feet away, between two Oz soldiers. It was well within his hearing range, but it was hard to filter out all the other noise when he was concentrating on his hearing. So all of his concentration was directed into processing the information his mind was receiving - sorting through the sounds he didn't want so that he could listen in on the one conversation he was interested in. It was a lot harder than it sounded while he was in a public park. There were dozens of conversations going on in that thirty-foot radius, and he was only interested in one.   
  
"There's something big going on up top," one said. Finally! He'd been listening to them discussing their social lives for the past twenty minutes.   
  
"What?"  
  
"I don't know, but his Excellency is trying to keep Romafeller from finding out. At least that's what I've heard."   
  
"Yeah, well if we've heard something about it, you can be sure those stiff-necks have heard about it too."  
  
"Think it has to do with that mess at the Crifton base?"  
  
"Maybe. What was that about?"  
  
"I heard a couple of prisoners escaped, but I figure it's a cover-up."   
  
"Why?"  
  
"Did you see the damage? Six mobile suits totaled? That wasn't just a couple of prisoners escaping."  
  
"Whatever. Hey, did you hear what happened to Louis? He got put off-duty because of a mistake in the scheduling, and on the shift he was supposed to take, there was a Gundam attack! No survivors. Can you believe that shit?"   
  
Kane let his mind drift slightly as the conversation started ranging into uninteresting topics again. Duo and Diana were being held at Crifton base. The soldiers might not believe it, but he could definitely see them blowing up six mobile suits to make their escape. They could have gotten away...  
  
"Duo!"   
  
Kane stiffened slightly and turned to look for whoever was calling Duo's name. He'd changed his hair and skin color to match Duo, and was wearing a pair of sunglasses, figuring that an albino would stand out too much on this world, where the colonists looked just like the Earthlings. So it wasn't surprising that someone would mistake him for Duo. What was surprising was that anyone would know Duo in the first place. Kane had been under the impression that the Gundam pilots were trying to keep a low profile.   
  
"Duo!" the voice shouted again, and Kane identified the speaker. It was a human girl, about his age, with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing some sort of uniform. She looked a little bit like Diana.   
  
"Yeah?" he asked cautiously.   
  
"Duo, I need to speak to Heero, it's very urgent," the girl said.   
  
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kane muttered, certain that whoever the girl was, that Heero did not want to talk to her.   
  
"Duo, this is important!" the girl said in what was probably supposed to be a coaxing voice, but came out as a whine.  
  
"I'm sorry, lady, but I don't know any Heero," he told her, wondering who the hell she was and how the hell she knew Heero and Duo.   
  
"Duo!" She actually stomped her foot. It was amusing to watch. "I know you think that you and Heero have..." she trailed off briefly, obviously unable or unwilling to talk about the two boys having sex, but soon recovered. "I know you think that you're his friend..." Friend, is that what they're calling it nowadays? "But you have to understand that Heero loves me!"   
  
With an effort, Kane managed to keep his jaw from dropping. This had to be Relena Dorlian/Peacecraft, or whatever the hell her name was. Duo had spent many hours complaining about her, and even Heero grimaced at the mention of her name. "Relena," he said slowly. "Heero doesn't love you. He loves... me." Duo, he added silently.  
  
"Oh!" she stomped her foot again, and he grinned. This was fun. "You don't understand," she said, speaking slowly, as if talking to an infant. "Heero and I belong together... would you take off those glasses and listen to me!" she grabbed for the glasses, but he dodged easily and grabbed her wrist.   
  
"Don't touch the glasses," he said, sounding deadly serious.   
  
She actually flinched away from him. "Duo, if you truly care for Heero, you'll give him this," she handed him an envelope. "And then let him go."   
  
"Sure. Whatever," he said, taking the envelope. By then the Oz soldiers had moved on, and he was ready to head back. He had a feeling that she wasn't going to leave him alone if he stayed, anyway.   
  
"Please, Duo. It's very important."  
  
"I'll give it to him," he promised. "Now I've got to go."  
  
As he expected, she attempted to follow him, but he lost her easily and then headed back to the safe house. When he got there, the door was opened by... "Diana!" he exclaimed, immediately embracing her. "So you did escape! Is Duo with you?"  
  
"Of course," Duo said from across the room. He was sitting on a couch eating a sandwich, and Heero was sitting next to him with a death grip on his braid. Duo had a very satisfied expression on his face. "How did you know?"  
  
"I was spying on some soldiers in town. You'll never guess who I met."  
  
They all stared at him expectantly. Finally Duo asked, "Well? Who?"  
  
"Diana's double. Relena whatever-the-hell her last name is."  
  
Duo's expression immediately darkened, and Heero pulled him closer, using the braid as a leash. For once Duo didn't object. "What did she say?"  
  
"That Heero was in love with her, and that he wasn't in love with me... meaning you. She thought I was you, for some reason."   
  
"Can't imagine why," Diana remarked dryly, looking at the two of them. Kane had 'borrowed' some clothes out of Duo's wardrobe, because Duo was the closest to his size. Duo's wardrobe consisted of three identical outfits, one of which Duo was wearing. Between the matching clothes and coloring, they were virtually identical, except for the glasses.   
  
"Oh yeah." Kane removed the glasses and let his skin fade back to normal. "Anyway, she wanted me to give you this," he said, tossing the envelope at Heero. Heero caught it and then glared at it, then at Kane. "Hey, it was the only way she'd leave me alone! That girl has got some issues. Why haven't you killed her?"   
  
"She's necessary for peace," Duo explained as Heero unwillingly opened the letter and scanned it's contents. After a few seconds he grimaced, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the garbage. "She's a big political player, and people listen to her. Killing her could jeopardize the future of the world."  
  
"Are you sure you want to put the future of the world in her hands?" Kane asked. "She's an idiot."   
  
"She's actually very good at expressing her ideals about peace," Quatre said, coming down the stairs. "She's just... fixated on Heero, for some reason. For months she followed him around asking him to kill her."  
  
Kane raised an eyebrow. "An idiot and suicidal? And you're risking the future on her?"   
  
Quatre shrugged helplessly. "Right now there's no one else."   
  
"So what's going on? How's Trowa?"  
  
"Still sleeping," Quatre said, glancing behind him. "Andrew's found some evidence that suggests the leak came from one of the scientists. Or rather, from one of their labs."   
  
"So what are we going to do about it?" Kane asked, trying not to let the term 'scientists' get to him. The scientists here were the good guys - sort of.  
  
"We?" Duo asked, and Heero shot him a sharp look.   
  
"You helped us on our world, we might as well return the favor," Kane said with a shrug, hoping he wasn't overstepping his authority. He glanced at Diana, who nodded.   
  
"If you think we can help, just let us know. We do know something about terrorist work. But we have to find Shin, also. And I don't like the idea of leaving that damned machine in Oz's hands."   
  
"We could steal it," Kane suggested.   
  
Suddenly Diana smiled. "How about if we switch it? Ideally they wouldn't even know it was gone." It was obvious that her mind was already at least three steps ahead of their conversation.  
  
"Clarify," Brian said shortly, reminding her that they weren't mind-readers.  
  
"We all got a decent look at it. What if we built a shell to look like it and then switched it? That way we'd have it and they wouldn't even know it. And it might give us an advantage later."  
  
"What sort of advantage?" Quatre asked with a frown.  
  
Diana shook her head slightly. "There are a lot of different things that might happen. But we should do it that way. Kane, how long would it take you to fabricate something like that?"   
  
"Couple of hours, depending on how exact you wanted it," Kane said with a shrug. He looked at Quatre, who looked confused. "You'll have to excuse Diana here. This is the way her mind works - she's always thinking eight or ten steps ahead, and she doesn't usually take the time to explain it all to us lowly peons. Sometimes I think even she doesn't understand all the complexities of her mind."  
  
"Kane!" Diana snapped.   
  
"Or not," Kane said, holding up his hands in mock surrender.   
  
"When are you going to go after the scientists?" Diana asked Quatre, who blinked.  
  
"A few days, a week..."  
  
"Give us three days to switch the machine and a safe place to store it, and we're at your disposal until we leave. Except that we need to find Shin, too. He's the only one who knows how to perform the calculations we'll need to get back home." She looked at Brian.   
  
"Have we tried looking for him on the net?"  
  
"Yes, but since we have no frame of reference, so..."  
  
"We've got to find some way to find him. Do we have any idea where he is?"  
  
"Well, he was on foot when he got out of the base. Apparently he kicked a hole through the wall - they haven't figured out how he did that yet," Kane snickered.   
  
"I did the same thing," Diana remarked. "They build their walls thin here. So he was on foot... but he wouldn't have stayed that way for long. He would have gotten clear of the immediate area, but stayed as close as was safe. Do we have a map of the area? He'll stick to urban settings, if he can. How many cities are there in the area around the base?"  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
Shin glanced around the computer store, then ducked his head as he caught sight of a security camera. Stop acting suspicious, he scolded himself. He relaxed and raised his head slightly, but not enough so that the camera would get a clear shot of his face, and continued his work. Nothing. He left the computer store and started wandering around the streets again.   
  
As soon as he arrived in this city, he'd visited a computer store and set up several e-mail accounts using various versions of his name, on the off-chance that they might check for him that way. He'd also hacked into a bank and made an account for himself, then withdrawn a small amount of money so that he could buy some supplies. Among them was a pair of colored lenses that were currently in his pocket for use in an emergency. Dark glasses hid his eyes easily enough most of the time.   
  
He'd been in several fights with various street-gangs who thought that he looked like a good person to rob. He'd been in a good mood, so he hadn't even killed any of them. He'd been keeping clear of anyone wearing a uniform (and there were several types out there), and no one seemed to have noticed him. There were pictures of him out there, but they were all of him as an albino. Since he currently looked like a short-haired version of Wufei, no one gave him a second look.   
  
He'd spent the rest of his time trying to figure out where the others were and learning about the political situation of the world he'd landed on. He was having little luck with the first task - hopefully the others were still with the Gundam pilots, but that meant that they were hiding themselves. He'd hacked Oz's computer a few times, but they were even more clueless than some civilians out there. He'd hacked into a mail server and found a communication between two individuals, one of whom had remarkably current information on the location of Heero Yuy. He noted that one of the correspondents was Relena Peacecraft/Dorlian, who was supposed to be Diana's double on this world. Was she involved in the fight somehow, like Diana? If so, she was remarkably inept at it. The web was supposed to provide a measure of anonymity, but all of her information was right there. She even used her real name right on the letters discussing information on a known terrorist that they were withholding from the government. Was she *trying* to get arrested?   
  
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder. "Say, where are you headed, pretty boy?" said a rough male voice.  
  
Shin turned to glare at him, which probably wasn't so effective with dark glasses on. "Let go of me."   
  
"Why? What's your hurry? Gotto go see your boyfriend?"  
  
Shin frowned slightly and removed his glasses. "You have seven seconds to remove your hand before I dislocate your shoulder."  
  
"Whoa, what the hell is wrong with your eyes?"  
  
"Five seconds."  
  
"Hey guys! Come look at this freak!"   
  
"Three seconds."  
  
"Yeah, that's real funny. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with.... AHHHHH!" he screamed. His shoulder made an audible popping sound as it dislocated.   
  
Shin glared at the three boys who came running to help him, and they all backed up a step. He put his glasses back on and continued down the street. What were the people running this world thinking, anyway? While they fought, their society was crumbling underneath them! True, there was the same problem on certain parts of the colonies in his world (universe) but that was due to deliberate action on the part of the Alliance, who wanted a place to stick the malcontents. To allow this to happen to common people was unbelievable and unacceptable, as unacceptable as allowing the Alliance to continue it's actions.  
  
The boy was still screaming - he could hear it with his enhanced senses. Pitiful. Someone who was that weak shouldn't have attempted to accost him in the first place. He shook his head slightly and continued walking.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
"He's been quite violent - he killed two of our men when we arrested him, and since then he's hospitalized four more," Zechs warned Treize. "I suggest we keep at least two soldiers here with us at all times, with their weapons trained on him."  
  
"I agree. Tell them, and then bring him in."  
  
Treize was sitting at his desk when they brought in the man who so resembled him, and he was glad that he wasn't standing. He'd been told that the man resembled him, not that the man was virtually his double, except for the different clothing and a short haircut. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve black shirt, as different from Treize as possible. His hands were manacled in front of him, and he'd stumbled slightly as one of the guards pushed him across the threshold. He raised his head, saw Treize, and froze.  
  
For several seconds they just stared at each other. Then the other man smiled at him. "So you must be the famous Treize Khushrenada. I've heard so much about you."   
  
"I'm afraid I can't say the same about you," Treize replied as smoothly as he could. There was something that made him dislike the other man on sight, which was ridiculous. Why should he dislike someone just because they looked (a lot) like him? But it wasn't the fact that the other man looked like him that bothered him. It was something in his eyes - he looked like the members of the Romafeller foundation looked, those weasel eyes, willing to hurt but not willing to risk getting hurt himself.   
  
The man's eyes widened and he actually began to laugh. "You don't know, do you?" he asked. "You have no idea who I am?"  
  
"Should I?" Treize asked.  
  
The man smiled and didn't respond.  
  
"I do know that you are the one that she hates," Treize said, waiting for a reaction. He got it.   
  
The man's eyes narrowed and he took a step forward. "You have her? You captured her?"  
  
"It would help if you specified which 'her' you were talking about."  
  
"Diana Dorlian. The Tiger. She looks like an albino girl about fifteen or sixteen years old. Do you have her?" There was a desperate, almost hungry look in his eyes.  
  
"You also called her Diana Dorlian. Is that really her name?" Treize asked, interested. There was something very vital to understanding the situation that he was missing. Maybe this man could provide that information.  
  
"No. I already gave you your free information. You don't have her anymore, do you? You wouldn't know how to hold her, and she'd never tolerate being held again."   
  
"Again? So you must be the one who held her before. She said that she met pilot 02 while in captivity."   
  
The man's eyes narrowed again, this time in concentration. "I'll make a deal with you, Treize. You have resources, I have information, and lots of it. Release me, help me capture her, and I'll make it worth your while."  
  
"You're going to have to do better than that," Treize said. "What sort of information do you have?"  
  
"I know the true identity of the girl and the five boys in her company. I believe they look suspiciously like five people that you know. I know - or I can guess - how she escaped. I know what she is. I know who I am, and why I look so much like you. And I know the formula for faster-than-light travel. You don't have that yet, right?" he asked, mocking.   
  
"Neither do you."  
  
"Oh, but I do. Why don't you go along? I'll still be in your custody - just as a guest rather than a prisoner. I'll give you the information all at once, you call in your physicists, and see if I'm telling the truth."  
  
"And what if I take the information and then throw you in jail?"  
  
The man shook his head. "Doesn't work that way. Even after I tell you everything I know about her, you're going to need my help to catch her, because of who and what she is."   
  
Treize had to admit, the man's continual referring to the girl as a 'what' had his attention piqued. He nodded to one of the guards. "Release him." He looked directly at the man. "Understand that I have not countermanded their orders to kill you if you become hostile."  
  
"Understood," he said as the guards removed the manacles. "Well, your Excellency," he said with a mocking bow. "What do you want to know first?" Treize definitely did not like this man. But if he could deliver what he promised, it would be worth it.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked.   
  
"I'm you," the man said with another laugh. After a second he held up his hands. "I'll explain. I... and the girl, and the five who are with her, are from another world. A parallel dimension, like your own, but different as well. I am who you would have been if you were born in my dimension."   
  
"You are..."  
  
"My name is Adam Velanz. I am a... special operative for the dominant political force in my world. The girl and her accomplices are all leaders of a Rebel movement to remove that government. In my world, we haven't been at war for two hundred years, or however long it has been for you, and in that time we've made a few scientific advances. The most important of these is the invention of the faster than light drive. We have over a dozen colonies spread out over three solar systems, all under control of the Alliance. There is also a very large instillation on the moon, but none of these space colonies you have."  
  
"A fascinating theory," Treize said quietly. "Rather unbelievable, too."  
  
"Take a sample of my blood and check it against your own. We should be almost identical genetically."   
  
"I will try that later," Treize said, surprised that he would make such a claim. It made him inclined to believe Velanz's story. "Assuming that all you say is true - how did you end up here?"  
  
"I don't know. It involves a machine that you built, and one that we built. Somehow your five ended up on my world. One of the scientists working for me told me that one of the experimental machines in storage was responsible. We captured them all - your five, my five, plus the girl, when they came back to that same machine in order to get back to your world. That is, we thought we captured them, when they activated the machine and we all got sent to your world."  
  
Treize nodded slightly. That would explain how a group (a large group) of people had ended up in the middle of one of his bases with no explanation of how they got there. "You keep saying your five, my five. Who are you referring to?"  
  
"The five boys who traveled through - I'm assuming that they are fighters of some sort, based on what they did to my people. They look like children. One with a very long braid, one Oriental boy, one with blond hair... there are two others, but I didn't look at them. I think they had brown hair. The blond boy said that they were pilots."  
  
"The Gundam pilots?" Treize asked.  
  
"I don't know. I just know pilot. There are ten of them now, five from your world, five from mine. Except the ones from my world aren't human."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"The five from my world are not human. That's why it was such a shock on my end when five boys who looked very similar to ours showed up who were actually human. On our world, genetic manipulation is a highly refined science. Sixteen years ago, the Alliance started a program to create genetically engineered weapons. They would look human, but have strength, reaction time, and intelligence far beyond any human. They built ten weapons - five male, five female. Only one of the females survived but all five males did. Those are my five. Their minds function as portable computers, they are incredibly strong and fast, they're immune to any disease known in my world, and will heal from any wound that isn't mortal, often in a matter of hours or days."  
  
"You said the Alliance created them," Treize observed.   
  
"Yes, we intended to use them for assassinations and strategy."  
  
"That wasn't what I meant. You said they were members of a Rebel movement. How did they end up there?"   
  
"A miscalculation. The lone female was accidentally adopted by a civilian and raised as human. She - it - isn't human, but it was raised as one, and taught morals. She recruited our five and brought them to join the rebels. Have you figured out who the female is yet? None other than Diana Dorlian, the adopted daughter of the ambassador to Alpha colony."  
  
"The girl?"  
  
"How do you think she escaped? I don't know any details, but if I were her, on one of your bases, I'd just plow through the walls."  
  
Zechs made a disbelieving sound. "You're trying to tell us that a sixteen-year-old girl managed to tear through the walls with her bare hands?"  
  
"Your walls are rather thin here. The room we had her in had walls at least three feet thick, reinforced with steel, and she was both handcuffed - using special handcuffs - and chained at the ankles the whole time. Besides, you miss the point. She isn't a sixteen-year-old girl. It is a genetically engineered weapon, a killing machine. It has been leading the Rebels for over four years now. If I can catch it and take it back with me, the Alliance will be able to crush the Rebels."   
  
"I see," Treize said coldly. "You've given me much to think about." He nodded to the guards. "These men will take you to a suitable room."  
  
"Thank you very much," Velanz said with a bow, only slightly less mocking. "I am at your disposal if you want any more information about how the Tiger operates."  
  
"The Tiger?" Zechs repeated.  
  
"The female's other name, the one she uses to lead the Rebels," he said as he was led away.  
  
"Remind me to get that blood test," Treize murmured.   
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"What do you think of him?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"Your honest opinion of him."  
  
"I can see why the girl dislikes him."  
  
"She hates him."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"I don't like him either, but he could be useful." Treize paused, staring out his window. "Interesting... she told us the truth. It was a truth so unbelievable that she knew we would dismiss it out of hand, but she did tell the truth." He turned to Zechs. "Make sure we have someone watching that man all the time. I want his every action reported."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Finding the girl is still a priority. We need to get to her before Romafeller." Treize paused thoughtfully. "Although if she's as deadly as they say, maybe we ought to turn her loose on Romafeller."   



	10. Part 9

Treize was looking through some reports on possible Gundam sightings (possible only because the bases in question had been so thoroughly destroyed that there was no evidence remaining of what had destroyed them), when someone cleared their throat right behind him. It was only because it had already happened a dozen times that he managed not to jump out of his skin at the sudden noise.  
  
Instead, he turned his chair around to calmly regard the boy... no, young man... leaning against the wall behind him. "It's been some time, dragon," he commented, setting his work aside.  
  
"We've been busy," Wufei remarked sardonically.  
  
"Indeed. Six ships, three bases and a transport strike in only three weeks," Treize replied. "Not to mention that entire debacle with the strike in the research lab."  
  
"I wanted to talk to you about that."  
  
Treize shook his head slightly. "You know better than that. We agreed at the beginning not to discuss the outside world here. Anything else and we'll spend all of our time probing each other for information."  
  
"And I agree, but this isn't our world we're talking about," Wufei responded evenly.   
  
That comment got Treize's attention. "Another world?"  
  
"I know you must already have this information. The girl you held before is not from this world."  
  
"And how do you know this?"  
  
"I've seen her world."  
  
"You have?"  
  
"I have. One of your experiments went awry."   
  
"So he was telling the truth," Treize murmured, more to himself than anyone else. However, Wufei caught the comment. For a second something strange glinted in his dark eyes, then it was gone.   
  
"You're holding him already," he commented. "What do you think of him?"  
  
"It's disturbing, to say the least," Treize commented. "And although I know it's irrational, I can't stand him. I did do the blood analysis, and he and I are identical genetically within one one-hundredth of a percentage, and that can be accounted for by normal testing error." He was not happy about that, to know that somewhere else he might have become someone like Velanz.   
  
He saw something... relief?... flicker through Wufei's eyes before they became unreadable black pools again. He immediately set about chasing down what the elusive emotion had been. Something told him that it was very important.   
  
"It's not irrational. The man is a dishonorable toad," Wufei told him. "Don't trust him - he would think nothing of slitting your throat while you sleep."  
  
"I have him under surveillance."  
  
"Not under lock and key?"  
  
"He's promised me the secret of faster-than-light travel if I assist him in recapturing the girl."  
  
"And you made a deal with him?" Wufei did not sound happy. In fact, he sounded a hairsbreath away from outraged, which was not a good sign.   
  
"We could use that technology, if he really can give it to us."  
  
"In return for the life of an honorable warrior."  
  
"Honorable?"  
  
"Much more so than that cur you're dealing with," he snarled.  
  
Treize's mind finally caught up with what he'd seen before. It had been relief in Wufei's eyes that he'd seen, and he'd been relieved when Treize said that Velanz was his genetic double. That meant one of two things - that Wufei had been worried that they weren't genetically identical, or that he hadn't known it was Velanz in the first place. Somehow it didn't seem likely that he was overly concerned with them being genetically identical or not, which meant that it was the second issue.   
  
"You're missing someone," he said, absolutely certain of himself, and saw chagrin on Wufei's face. "Who?"  
  
"You know I'm not going to tell you that, but he never made it back," Wufei said. "Thank you for confirming that you don't have him."  
  
"You were pumping me for information." There was no hint in his voice that his words were an accusation, but they both knew they were. Wufei was right, this was a very unusual situation, but he was coming dangerously close to crossing a line that had been set when they first got together. "The least you can do now is tell me who it was."  
  
"I can't do that," Wufei said, turning so that his back was to Treize, a sure sign that he was feeling guilty about what he'd done. He was silent for a few minutes, then turned back, his expression strained. "But I can give you some other information... the man, Velanz, he can do what he says."   
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"He can probably give you faster-than-light travel. I don't know much about his knowledge specifically, but his world does have faster-than light travel. If he says he can do it, he probably can."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"That they have faster-than-light travel? When we arrived at one of their bases, it was on another planet."  
  
"You're certain? It wasn't some sort of trick?"  
  
"There were two suns," Wufei told him.  
  
Treize smiled slightly. Despite everything he'd seen and done, he'd never quite gotten over a basic love of outer space and the adventure and challenge it represented. To stand on another planet...   
  
"I envy you, dragon."  
  
Wufei shrugged slightly. "The colonies they have there are nearly as fragile as our own - they may live on other worlds, but they still live in domes, depending on their own constructions for survival. In some ways they're even more fragile. We refused to teach them how to make mobile suits."   
  
"You did?" That surprised him. Among other things, the Gundam pilots were known for being absolutely ruthless. He would have expected that they would act to give their new allies every advantage in their home universe.   
  
"Mobile suits would have destroyed their worlds - for them, the conflict must remained contained, or millions will die. The population of their colonies far exceeds ours, and the Alliance has already proven their willingness to destroy colonies for their own interests. From what I've seen, it's standard policy for them. They've gone even farther than even you dared to," he added with a raise of an eyebrow.   
  
"Then they've gone too far," Treize said coldly. He'd been furious when he heard that Lady Une had threatened to destroy the colonies unless the Gundam pilots surrendered. Zechs had summed it up perfected when he called it 'tasteless tactics.' If he won using such tactics, it would make his winning meaningless, and he was determined not to let that happen. And Wufei knew that. He was using Treize's determination to manipulate his emotions, the manipulative little brat. Suddenly Treize remembered why he'd started a relationship with the young pilot. It was for the same reason that he and Zechs had gotten together. There were so few people who could keep up with him mentally, and fewer still chose to use that knowledge in the word games he adored.   
  
That reminded him. "Who is the girl in the other world?" he asked, his earlier anger already dismissed.  
  
He saw a flash of surprise in Wufei's eyes and allowed himself a slight smile of satisfaction. If Wufei was going to play word games with him, he should be prepared to have the game turned on him. Wufei had been right - this was very different than discussing troop placements or something like that, this was safe to talk about, and now Trieze was ready to enter the game in earnest. "What do you know?" he asked in response.   
  
"Velanz said that she is not human. That she is some sort of genetically engineered weapon."  
  
"She is something more than human, faster and stronger, as you have no doubt seen," Wufei told him. "And she is a leader of men back in her own world. Women are weak... but she is not quite a woman, is she?" he asked neutrally. Trieze managed not to raise an eyebrow at that comment. The girl must be absolutely spectacular at whatever skills she possessed to wring an admission like that out of Wufei. He'd never been able to understand Wufei's insistence that women were always weaker than men. To be sure, most were, made that way because of the expectations of society, but not all women were like that. Wufei never understood that - this was the first time that Treize had heard him speak of a female without scorn in his voice.  
  
Wufei's eyes flickered to the antique clock on the wall, right above the digital one set on military time. Both were necessary, one for his own mental well-being, the other for business. Treize was still looking for a way to combine the two, so far without success. Maybe the two were meant to be apart.   
  
"I have to go now - I only came to warn you about him."  
  
"And to make sure that we did not hold your comrade," Treize corrected him mildly, with a hint of rebuke in his tone.  
  
"Indeed. Please convey my greetings to Zechs. I am sorry I missed him."  
  
"Yes, well, he's a bit busy cleaning up after your last attack."  
  
"I know."   
  
Treize signed - he would give a lot to know how Wufei seemed able to pinpoint their locations at any time with little to no effort - he'd had Lady Une go over their security a dozen times, and still he couldn't find the leak.   
  
Wufei opened the window and climbed up onto the sill, apparently not at all concerned at the guards who were supposed to be outside, guarding him. Treize would have to speak to them about that. "Just be very careful with this man. He would think nothing of betraying you if he thought it was in his interest, much like Romafeller."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind," Treize told him. He was also going to keep in mind the fact that Wufei's perspective on this issue was more than a little biased.   
  
Wufei knew him well enough to know what he was thinking. "It is true, I am not entirely objective in this, but then, I get along much better with my double then I think you do with yours. But remember this - they offered us their aide, risked their lives for us even when we refused to give them mobile suit technology. Your double refuses to give you even basic information about your enemies unless you aide him." Wufei's lips quirked in a slight smile. "Is it any surprise that I think you're making a terrible mistake?"  
  
-----------------------------------------  
  
"How did it go?" Diana asked as Brian, Devin, Andrew and Trowa came walking in the door.  
  
"Mission accomplished," Brian said coldly. Duo did a double-take, trying not to stare... But damnit, Brian sounded so much like Heero when he talked like that. At least he wasn't talking in Japanese - that would have been too much.   
  
"They didn't suspect a thing," Andrew said, elaborating when he saw that none of his companions were going to. "We got in and out, completed the switch..." he shook his head slightly in disgust. "They never even realized that we don't work for Oz."   
  
"And the... machine?" Diana asked, still not having come up with a better name for it.   
  
"Safe in the place that we talked about," Andrew said, not even mentioning it by name now. As far as Duo could tell, there were some things that they just didn't talk about out loud, no matter how secure the situation. The fact that all of them read lips as easily as they breathed might have something to do with it.   
  
"Good," Diana said with a nod, then went back to whatever it was she was doing. She'd been shocked and appalled when informed that they either knew nothing or did nothing about the way that the populace viewed the Gundams, Oz, and the war in general. Apparently a large part of what she did was work to get the public on the side of the Rebels, to let everyone know what the Alliance was really doing. Duo could see why she did that - with no Gundams, the main resource in fighting wars was bodies, plain and simple. And you don't get people to sign up if they think that you're the evil Rebels. So he could see why their five doubles just couldn't be the only force, no matter how good they were. It would be like the five Gundam pilots trying to fight off all of Oz's forces in one-on-one combat. Without their Gundams.   
  
Still, he thought that Diana was going a little overboard with the shock and horror. It wasn't as if the five of them had a whole lot of free time to spend fighting Oz's propaganda. But then, this was I-take-responsibility-for-the-entire-world Diana they were talking about. For her, there was no such thing as too much work. He had no idea how she'd managed not to burn herself out years ago. And I thought Heero was a workaholic.   
  
"When are you leaving?" she asked without taking her eyes off whatever it was she was doing. She had two screens set up in front of her, and was reading from one while she typed at about two hundred words per minute on the keyboard. From where he was sitting, Duo could see that whatever she was typing was going up onto the other screen, based on how fast it was scrolling down.   
  
"Will you at least look at me when you do that?" he demanded.  
  
She instantly moved her eyes from the screen to him, still typing. "Sorry. When are you leaving?"  
  
"Tonight," Duo said. After some talking, they'd decided that he, Kane, and Andrew would go to G's lab in space - him because G gave him his orders, Kane because it ought to confuse the hell out of whoever had betrayed them, and Andrew because he could hack just about anything, and because he could get information out of just about anyone when he wanted. Duo was trying not to think about that part, about how close he'd come to having Andrew perform the same services on him.   
  
He didn't remember what had happened to Quatre when he'd been on the Zero system - he hadn't been there at the time, but he'd heard about it from Heero, and he couldn't forget the look on Trowa's face when he found him again in the circus, after he lost his memory, the naked fear on the normally mask-like face.   
  
He knew that Andrew was sorta like Quatre, except that it seemed like he was constantly half on and half off of the Zero system. It didn't show very often, but... he hid a shudder. Andrew creeped him out in a way that none of the other doubles did, and he wasn't too cowardly to admit it. But he wasn't afraid of him - if nothing else, Andrew was completely in control of himself, and was an ally, albeit a strange one.   
  
"You're sure the scientists..." she actually left of typing for a moment, a sure sign that she was very upset about something. "You're sure they're not the ones who betrayed you?"  
  
"Yeah. They've pulled a lot of crap in their time, but they wouldn't risk their own agenda's by getting us killed. But Heero did confirm that there's a traitor somewhere in the labs. We know G's got one for sure, still looking for confirmation on the others, that's why we get to go first," he told her as seriously as he could manage. Scientists really got to her - it was a good thing that she wasn't going along, she might shoot G as soon as she saw him. And while he was a jerk a lot of the time, he was more valuable alive then dead, at least right now.   
  
She nodded, her eyes traveling back to the screens, but her face looked almost as pale as it had been when she first saw the open sky. That reminded him... "How's that whole fear-of-open-spaces thing coming?"  
  
She glared at him, but looked better already. "Fine. I walked out to the road and back without even hyperventilating," she replied sarcastically. "Did I mention how much I am not liking Earth?"  
  
"Oh, come on, give it a chance. There's some good stuff going for it, don't you think?"  
  
"I might appreciate it more if I could walk outside for more than ten minutes without freaking out," she told him. "You cannot imagine how humiliating this is for me." Luckily, she was only half-serious.  
  
"Look at it as a learning experience," he suggested, and she growled something unrepeatable at him. Nope, definitely nothing like Relena Peacecraft. I think she'd faint if she even thought about those words.  
  
Diana's typing speed actually managed to increase after that comment. She barely glanced up as Kane came in. "How'd it go?" she asked, once again focused on what she was doing.  
  
Or at least that's what it looked like. Was it possible to be completely focused on two things at the same time? When you were in a Gundam you had to concentrate on a dozen things at once, but they were all aimed at one goal - defeating the enemy and keeping yourself alive. In that order. Diana tended to concentrate on several unrelated topics at the same time, or so it appeared.  
  
"No sign of him yet," Kane reported glumly. "Is Wufei back yet? Maybe he's heard of something."  
  
"He said he was going to check out a lead," Diana said. "And he's not back yet."   
  
For an instant Kane's face fell, then the expression disappeared as if it had never been when he grinned mischievously. "Ah, I'm sure Shin's fine. He's probably hanging out in some posh hotel somewhere, living it up on room service. He's a little hard to kill - trust me, we tried."  
  
Duo blinked, then he remembered - Shin had tried to kill Diana before she taught him the truth about the people who'd raised him, and she tried to return the favor. He grinned to himself. It was nice to know that someone, somewhere, also met one of their best friends by shooting them. So what if he had to go to another universe to find them?  
  
"I'm sure we'll find him in no time," he said with a confidence he in no way felt.   
  
"Who among you is best at politics?" Diana suddenly asked, ignoring his comment entirely.  
  
"What? Ah, that would be Quatre, I guess," Duo said with a shrug. None of them were trained for politics - they were trained to kill, in many different fashions, and to support themselves while they did it, but politics was an entirely different story. But Quatre's father was extremely rich and fairly powerful - he'd probably had some training in that stuff. "Why?"  
  
"I want to know what he thinks of this." Diana nodded towards the screen, then looked at Duo carefully. "Actually, you might as well read this, too. I'd like to know what you think of it. It's hard writing stuff for people from your universe. The mindset is completely different."   
  
He blinked. "What?"  
  
"You have to write propaganda that people will understand," Diana said seriously. "And the people in our universe think differently than they do in yours."  
  
Duo found himself interested in spite of himself. "Why?"  
  
"Well, there is this whole two hundred years of war that you guys have had, it makes people more nervous, more suspicious in general - the fact that you have many different nations working together instead of one world nation, or used to anyway, that makes a difference too. Then there's the location of the colonies."  
  
"What?" Damn it, he was beginning to sound like a broken record!  
  
"Well, your colonies are so close to each other - relatively, I mean, and so close to Earth. That makes a big difference in the way people classify themselves. In our universe, for instance, if for some reason you get to talk to someone from another colony or planet, and it barely ever happens, you introduce yourself by your colony name, the planet your colony is on, and finally your ancestry from Earth. So you see, we've very much divorced ourselves from our past. The fact that we're all... well, all true colonists are albinos, that has a lot to do with it, too. It's a lot of work and incredibly expensive to get to Earth, where you're immediately identified as an outsider because of the way you look. I'm speaking from first hand accounts, not personal experience, by the way. So anyway, most people don't want to take that much time and money to go to a place where they can be outcasts. Add to that the fact that the Alliance controls and has restricted communication and travel between the colonies and Earth for over fifty years, and probably less than one colonist in a thousand has ever been to Earth, or even seen it with their own eyes. So we don't have the same connection with Earth that all you do. And that changes the way you perceive everything. Do you want me to go on?"  
  
"Sure, this is kinda interesting," Duo encouraged her. At least it'll be something to think about when I'm waiting on an ambush. "Ah, just one thing. What do you mean, true colonists? I mean, you were born on one of the colonies, that makes you a colonist, doesn't it?"  
  
"You have to be human to be a colonist," she replied with a shrug, then turned the screen to face him. "Here, I'll show you what I did with this..."  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
"So how is it that you manage with all these different countries?" Velanz asked in a lazy drawl. "It must be terribly inefficient. No, that's a sigma," he corrected the scientist who was reviewing his sloppily written equations.  
  
Treize sighed silently as he set aside another file. Sometimes it seemed that all he ever did recently was paperwork. Right now he was having a hard time concentrating, however, something that rarely bothered him. But Velanz had insisted that he wanted to talk to him, and when Treize said that he had to finish his work first, Velanz announced that he wasn't leaving. So he'd dragged the scientist that was working on his equations in with him, and the two of them had sat in front of Treize's desk for the past two hours, the scientist clearly miserable to be stuck in this position, inconveniencing the beloved leader of Oz, but just as clearly fascinated by what Velanz was showing him.  
  
"Please send this out," Treize said to Zechs, who'd returned from his work cleaning up after the Gundam attack. His presence here wasn't really necessary, but Treize was grateful for it nonetheless, because Zechs acted as a sort of buffer between Treize and his double, allowing Treize to remain outwardly calm and collected.   
  
Zechs nodded slightly, glancing at the papers as he handed them to a subordinate. As the door opened, the man was nearly knocked over by someone running through the door in the other direction. "Your Excellancy! Good news! We've caught one of the Gundam pilots!"  
  
There was a stunned silence in the room. The man looked from Treize's face to Zechs' and back again. "We've got him isolated down in an empty cell block. Would you like to see him?"  
  
Treize rose smoothly from his chair. "Yes. I've heard quite a bit about them, it's about time I finally meet one, don't you think?" he asked rhetorically, purposefully not looking at Zechs. He'd already told Zechs about Wufei's visit. But Wufei had left hours ago - he was probably hundreds of miles from here by now.   
  
As he started following down the hall, he was aware of Zechs falling into step behind him. It was several minutes, however, before he realized that Velanz had also followed him. He stopped short and turned around to frown at his double. "I do not remember giving you permission to come."  
  
"You never told me not to," Velanz said with a shrug. "Besides, you need me. I can tell you if it really is one of your pilots or one of our experiments. They can be hard to tell apart at times," he admitted ruefully.   
  
Treize didn't even bother to acknowledge him with a nod. He spun back and continued following the man down the hall. A few minutes later they reached a cell with two guards standing in front of it at attention. The rest of the hall was deserted.   
  
"It's a one-way mirror," the man explained, pointing at a small window in the door. Treize looked through it and his heard practically jumped into his throat. Wufei was sitting in a chair in the center of the brightly lit room, his arms cuffed behind him. He was wearing a pair of dark glasses and a completely different set of clothes than he'd been wearing a few hours earlier. Even stranger, he had cut his hair. It was in a short cut, no more than a few centimeters long anywhere, with no sign of the small ponytail that he'd had as long as Treize had known him.   
  
"I want to speak with him alone."  
  
"Sir?! But... he's dangerous..."  
  
"Zechs will be here to protect me, and he is restrained. I trust that he will be able to protect me?"  
  
"Sir, I'm sorry, but you have no idea how dangerous he is. He killed eight of our men after we disarmed him. I can't in good conscience let you go in there alone. If you leave the door open..."  
  
Treize hid a sigh. It was obvious that he was not going to be able to talk to Wufei in private, thanks to this overzealously protective subordinate. He nodded his agreement, then keyed in his code to open the door. Wufei raised his head slightly when Treize entered, and he stared at Treize for a few seconds before dropping his head slightly again. Treize exchanged a glance with Zechs. Wufei wouldn't give away that they knew each other, but this behavior was strange. Treize would have expected him to answer with scorn, or disgust. Not this blank silence.  
  
"Well, you're not exactly what I expected," he said in a conversational tone, watching Wufei's face. It was hard to know what he was thinking at any time, and even harder now with those glasses on. "You're just a boy. I wonder what you were thinking, trying to fight us." That was an outright lie - he knew Wufei wasn't a boy any more than he was. None of the Gundam pilots were boys, despite their ages - more like old men stuck in children's bodies.   
  
A hint of a wry smile was playing at the edges of Wufei's lips, and Treize took an involuntary step backwards. There was something very wrong here. He knew Wufei quite well, knew his mannerisms, and this man was displaying none of them. It was almost as if...  
  
A low chuckle interrupted his thought process, and he turned to see Velanz walk into the room, his arms crossed in front of him, an amused look on his face. "You haven't figured it out yet, have you?" he asked Treize. "He's not your pilot." Suddenly one hand snaked out and pulled the sunglasses away from Wufei's face. Wufei turned his head aside for a moment, closing his eyes, then he opened them and glared at Velanz.  
  
Treize took another step back. Wufei's - not Wufei - his eyes were completely white, with tiny black pupils in the center. "You!" he hissed. There was the creak of tortured metal, and he suddenly launched himself at Velanz. There was the crack of gunfire, and not-Wufei suddenly slumped to the ground, blood seeping from his left leg.  
  
"Now, Five, you should know better than that," Velanz said in a casual tone, still holding the gun on the boy. Treize wondered briefly where on Earth he'd gotten the gun from and made a mental note to scold his security officers. They were failing all over the place today, it seemed. "Now get back in the seat and keep your arms at your side, or I'll shoot you in the other leg."  
  
The boy continued to glare at him, but silently climbed back into the chair, showing no discomfort from the bullet wound that had bled all over his jeans and was now dripping on the floor. Actually, as he moved, he didn't act as if he'd been injured at all, Treize noted. He sat bolt upright, pushing his back flat against the back of the chair, arms glued to his sides. He stared straight in front of him, eyes blank, not even looking at Velanz.  
  
"Very good, Five. It's good to see that you haven't lost all your discipline in the presences of those Rebels," Velanz said, then turned his head towards Treize without taking his eyes off the boy. "This is Subject Five of the Omega Project," he said slowly. "It was created less than sixteen years ago, has accelerated healing, increased speed, intelligence, and strength, and... oh, yes. Five, change back to normal."  
  
The boy didn't look at him, but he raised his head slightly, lips tightening.   
  
Velanz tilted his head slightly, then fired a bullet into his other thigh. The boy's eyes snapped shut and his head dropped for an instant. Then he raised his head again and resumed staring into space as he bled onto the floor.   
  
"What are you doing?!" Treize demanded icily. He did not like the look in Velanz's eye, as if he was enjoying torturing the boy. "I want him alive," he added, to give the man an excuse to stop shooting the boy.   
  
"It will survive. We built them to take a lot more punishment than this. Five, if you don't change back right now, I will shoot you in the head," he added, shifting his aim slightly so that the gun was now aimed precisely at the boy's head. The boy's eyes narrowed slightly, then he paled. And paled. Treize's eyes widened as he realized that all of the color was disappearing from his skin and hair, leaving the rest of him as bleached as his eyes.   
  
Wufei's double turned to look at Treize. "You must be Treize Khushrenada. Our doubles told us about you. They said that you were not as lowly as *him*," his eyes flicked towards Velanz. "I am very disappointed to see that they were mistaken in this instance."  
  
"That's enough, Five."  
  
"My name is Shin."   
  
Velanz drew back the hammer on the gun. "You don't have a name. You're not even human. You're just a weapon that's misfired. I'm going to take you back to our world, and then our scientists will dissect you to find out what's gone wrong with this experiment, so we can try again."  
  
The boy smirked. "There isn't enough brains in the Alliance to create us again. You had to blackmail some *smart* people into doing it the first time, and then to top off your stupidity, you killed them too. There's no one left who can make us," he sneered.   
  
"Maybe," Velanz admitted, walking in a slow circle around the chair, always keeping the gun aimed squarely at the boy. "But we won't need to. Once we have you and the others, the Rebels will collapse."  
  
"Diana's been outsmarting you since she was seven," Shin smirked. "What makes you think that you're going to do any better now that she's had more experience, now that she has the rest of us to help her?"  
  
"Because Subject Eight is foolish enough to believe that she has some humanity in her," Velanz said scornfully. "And because she places the lives of others above her own. She will turn herself over willingly in exchange for your life."  
  
Shin's head snapped around to look at Velanz, his lips tightening with anger. "You bastard..." he whispered hoarsely, and for the first time, Treize saw real fear in his eyes.  
  
Velanz smiled, then casually slammed the butt of his gun into the back of the boy's head. The boy slumped slightly, then raised his head again, eyes partially glazed. Velanz struck again, in the exact same place, and this time Shin slumped completely.  
  
By this time Treize had completely lost control of his usually calm face, and he guessed that his shock was clearly visible on his face, because Velanz turned to him and said, "It was necessary. You don't have anything that would hold him now, and those wounds won't hold him for more than a couple hours. Don't worry, he'll be fine in a day or so - it'll take a lot more than that to crack the skull of one of our creations."  
  
"So what do you recommend now?" Treize asked, not bothering to keep the coldness out of his voice. He'd known the man was dangerous, both his own instincts and Wufei had told him that, but he hadn't know how needlessly cruel the man was. To shoot the boy twice, then verbally torture him like that before knocking him unconscious with a blow that could have very easily paralyzed him or left him brain damaged was completely unnecessary and unacceptable.   
  
"Get some of your doctors to dig the bullets out of it," he said, waving his gun casually. "Don't bother to treat it - he'll heal in a couple of days anyway. I already gave some of your people the formula for a drug that will keep him down as long as we need. Long enough to build a better facility," he observed, looking around the room. "He could have escaped from this place in a second. Look at these cuffs," he said, nudging the boy's limp wrists with the end of his gun. The chain between the cuffs had been torn in half. "Not much harder than tearing paper, for it," he said, shaking his head. "I'll give some of your people plans to build something that has a chance in hell of stopping him for more than one second."  
  
"I see." Treize turned to the guards who were standing in the door with shocked expressions on both of their faces. He nodded to them. "Please see that it's taken care of. And relieve Mr. Velanz of his gun."   
  
Velanz shot him an absolutely murderous glare, which Treize pretended not to notice. As the guards dragged the boy's limp form out the door, Treize exchanged a glance with Zechs, with whom he'd shared Wufei's morning visit. Velanz was more dangerous than he'd ever suspected, and he was beginning to have second thoughts about this entire arrangement.   
  
----------------------------------------  
  
"I can't believe how easy it is to get from Earth to the colonies," Andrew commented out loud to Kane that night as they sat in the front of the shuttle that carried Deathscythe and them to the scientist's lab. Kane hoped that Andrew would be able to remain calm if it turned out that the scientists here were the doubles of the scientists back on their world. The scientists there had done some pretty fucked up things to all of them, but somehow Andrew had born the worst of it, because of his abilities. Kane didn't understand Andrew's desire to not kill people, but he'd seen what it did to his 'brother', the strain of having conflicting desires warring in his head. Leaving the Alliance had been very good for him - they would have killed him eventually, one way or another.   
  
"What's wrong?" Kane asked immediately, recognizing the signs that Andrew was upset about something. Andrew almost never talked to hear the sound of his own voice, and that had been an empty statement if he ever heard one.  
  
"It's Shin. I think something's wrong."  
  
"What?" It had taken Kane some time to get used to the idea that Andrew had some sort of ability that allowed him to see things the others couldn't, but once he did, he accepted those abilities without question.   
  
"I don't know. Just a bad feeling. I can't get anything more specific than that. I've been trying all afternoon to pin it down, but I can't." The way Andrew's lips were pressed together was evidence enough of how very frustrated he was.   
  
"Do you think he got captured?"  
  
"I don't know. I guess we'll hear quickly enough if he did. It doesn't matter right now, we have our own mission to complete." Now that was a change of topic if Kane ever heard one, but if Andrew didn't want to talk about it, Kane wasn't going to push. Andrew could be more closed-mouthed than Brian when he put his mind to it, so Kane just nodded agreement.  
  
"So what do you think of their Gundams?" Andrew asked, jerking his head towards the back of the shuttle, where Deathscythe was and where Duo slept. The Gundam pilots were good, but they were still human and needed sleep. Kane had taken a nap earlier and was set to go for another day or two.   
  
Kane grinned. "I gotta get me one of those. Haven't seen anything as great at destroying as those things, ever. They're even better than C-4," he said, mentioning one of his favorite explosives, and got a real smile from Andrew in return. "But seriously..." he said, abruptly changing gears and shaking his head. "I see why they didn't want to give us the technology back on our world, and we can't bring it back with us. Even a normal mobile suit could destroy an entire colony by accident. These Gundams..." he shook his head again. "They're fine for on Earth, but we'd kill off half the colonists in no time if we tried to build them back on our world."  
  
"Yeah. Quatre let me in Sandrock, showed me how to use it, so I can pilot a mobile suit if we run into trouble, but we can't bring those things back with us." Andrew shivered slightly. "It's hard to avoid killing with those things. Their casualty rates are staggeringly high, and it's not just soldiers. Not that it is with us, but..."   
  
"But when innocents get killed on our side, it's always the Alliance, and almost always deliberate. People here just get hurt." Kane fell silent, thinking of the one time one of Diana's people had decided to get 'creative' and took out an Alliance agent along with his entire family, including three kids. The look on her face when she heard the news had been terrifying, and the incident had not been repeated.   
  
"The randomness here is frightening, sometimes," Andrew confessed. "So much stuff happens without anyone planning it, people live and die... I never thought I'd miss the Alliance, but they sure do keep everything under control. I don't think it's possible to limit an attack here the way we do on our world - no matter what you do, it's going to spread beyond what you planned, and probably involve people who shouldn't be."  
  
"Well, it ain't going to happen this time. A lab in the middle of space, hanging thousands of meters away from any colonies - that's about as isolated as you get. There isn't going to be any fallout from this one, we're just going to capture the traitor and deal with him."  
  
"Or her," Andrew reminded him. Some of their own most effective spies were female, because the Alliance had a strange prejudice against them and believed that they could never accomplish anything worthwhile. An inexplicable attitude, especially given the fact that the head scientist on the project that created them had been female (until they killed her, anyway), and given what Diana had accomplished with her Rebels, many of whom were female. But as long as the Alliance persisted in being stupid, Diana was happy to use those blind spots against them. They rarely suspected her female operatives until it was too late.  
  
"Or her," Kane agreed, then fell silent, looking at the stars outside.   
  
"It's beautiful out here, isn't it?" Andrew said, looking at the starry expanse of space. They'd been to Earth once in their universe, and visited the moon twice, as well as traveling to various other colonies, but they'd never gotten a chance to look at space, since they were always sealed in a windowless room for the journey. The Alliance hadn't wanted them to experience anything out of their direct control, so since the stars weren't yet in the Alliance's domain, no stars for them!  
  
"Yup," he agreed, and the two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence, staring at the stars.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I just added the 5x6x13 because I thought it was interesting and added something to an already complicated situation. I'm not planning anything explicit, I don't think. 


	11. Part 10

"So that's a space colony," Kane remarked, looking out the window. "And this Professor of yours is on that little station off by itself." He snorted. "Surprising," he remarked sarcastically.  
  
"You ready?" Duo asked. He really, really hoped that Kane and Andrew could keep it under control and wouldn't go on a shooting spree when they came face-to-face with Professor G. The Professor wasn't his favorite person in the whole world, but he didn't want him killed. Duo was under no illusions that he'd be able to stop either of them if they decided to kill him. But they said they'd be all right, so...  
  
"Yeah, just a second." Kane turned and looked at the mirror he'd dragged along, large enough for him to see his entire face in it. As Duo watched, Kane's face darkened slightly, and his hair turned chestnut brown. Kane fished the lenses case out of his pocket and carefully stuck the lenses in his eyes. "Do you have any idea how weird your eye color is? Or how long I had to look to find a pair of lenses that matched your eyes? How the hell did you end up with those weird blue-purple eyes?"  
  
Duo shrugged. "Just lucky, I guess."  
  
"Yeah, whatever. I still think white's better. Less easy to identify people that way. Come over here and look in the mirror so I can check out the tones."  
  
Duo obediently walked over and looked in the mirror at the disturbing sight of his double shifting his skin and hair tones slightly until they matched perfectly. Then Kane grinned at their double reflection, mirroring an expression that Duo used every day, and Duo turned away. "This is so creepy," he muttered. "Would you stop doing that? I think that one of me is more than enough."  
  
"I agree entirely. And do you have any idea how creepy it is to see an Earthling version of myself every time I turn around?"  
  
"I told you before, I'm not an Earthling... I mean I'm not from Earth! And what about you... you remind me of a washed-out version of myself!"  
  
"Great, now you're picking up each other's speech patterns," Andrew remarked as he came out of the back, looking exactly like Quatre. "Are you quite done?"  
  
"Aw, come on, Andrew, we're just having fun," Kane complained. "Isn't that right, Duo?"  
  
"I'm having fun," he informed Andrew, then grinned at him, an expression which Kane quickly copied.  
  
Andrew looked at the two identical faces with the same devilish expression on them with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "Anyone else would think that the two of you hate each other."  
  
"Me, hate him? Just because he's an albino freak?" Duo asked at the same time as Kane asked, "Me, hate him? Just because he looks like an Earthling?"  
  
Andrew sighed again. "Are you ready? Because there's some guy pounding on the hatch wanting to know what the hell we're doing here," he told them.  
  
"I knew we should have just come with Deathscythe," Duo muttered. "It would have been easier. You wouldn't believe how cooperative people can be with a Gundam hovering right outside the station."  
  
"But they can only give us information if they have it - you didn't think that this Professor knew he had a traitor inside," Andrew pointed out. "And it does give us something to fall back on."  
  
"Besides, think how much fun it will be when they see the two of us together," Kane pointed out, and Duo grinned.  
  
"Yeah, that's going to be great. I wish I had a camera."  
  
"I have a photographic memory, and I can draw," Kane offered. "I'll draw you a picture later."  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
Andrew just barely managed to keep from rolling his eyes. "How did I get stuck with the two of you?"   
  
"You were the best for the mission," Kane said with a shrug. "Besides, I heard Diana say that you were the only one who had the patience to put up with us."  
  
Andrew's expression softened slightly at the mention of Diana, but his eyes narrowed when he heard the end of Kane's comment. "I'm going to get her for this," he muttered darkly.   
  
"Oh, come on, we aren't that bad!" Kane exclaimed, but Andrew shot him a look that suggested he thought otherwise.  
  
"Are you ready?" Duo asked, hearing the banging from the back of the shuttle growing louder. "I don't want them to dent the hull."  
  
"Do you have your transmitter?" Andrew asked.  
  
"Yup," Duo said, after checking his pocket one last time.  
  
"Check," Kane asked, his face grim. That was one of the things that drove Duo nuts about his double - he was incredibly serious when it came to missions - no more laughing or joking around at all. It was as if some secondary personality took over, and made Duo wonder which was the real Kane. Probably the one he joked around with, but it was disturbing just the same.   
  
"Are they turned on?" Andrew asked.  
  
"I can't believe you asked us that... oops," Duo muttered, turning his on.   
  
"Don't feel too bad, Kane does it on a regular basis," Andrew told him confidentially, with a glance at Kane, who contrived to look hurt. Again, the separation of the mission and non-mission conversation. It was as if Kane thought he was only allowed to joke around when they weren't actually discussing the mission. Then again, thinking about it, he probably did believe that.  
  
There were a few parts of their plan that were highly time-sensitive, so they were using these transmitters to coordinate their actions. They could be two-way, but right now the ones that Andrew and Duo carried were set to only transmit. Kane would be monitoring what the transmitters sent, so he could move at the right time. "You sure you got the layout memorized?" Duo asked Kane.  
  
"Memorized," Kane replied, blank-faced once again. Duo happened to glance at Andrew right after Kane said that and saw a hint of sadness cross his face before it was replaced by the same blank mask Kane wore.   
  
"Ready?" he asked Duo.  
  
"Yup. Let's get this over with, find the son-of-a-bitch who set us up," Duo agreed readily. "We're coming!" he shouted at the top of his lungs to the person banging on the hatch. Both Kane and Andrew winced. Oh yeah. Super-sensitive hearing, Duo remembered, too late to do anything about it. Instead, he headed for the back of the shuttle, to the hatch. Andrew followed him.   
  
Duo unlocked the door and pulled it open, then leveled his best do-you-really-want-to-mess-with-Shinigami glare at the man who stood on the other side, an angry expression on his face. Duo found it quite amusing to watch all the color drain out of his face until he was almost as pale as Kane when he recognized Duo and saw the expression on his face. "Where is the Professor?" Duo demanded coldly. He could do the menacing thing when he wanted, and he could tell that Andrew was quite amused by the situation.   
  
"I... I have to..."  
  
"Take me to him, now," Duo said, finishing his sentence, although that's probably not what the man was going to say. Duo pulled out his gun and fingered the trigger. "I really need to talk to him."  
  
Duo knew that he had a reputation among G's people of being somewhat unstable and prone to killing things randomly. That couldn't be further from the truth - he never killed without a damn good reason, but they didn't know that. Apparently this guy had heard the rumors, because he paled farther and immediately started leading them through the base, not that Duo couldn't have found G all by himself.   
  
The man led him to the door of G's private office, and Duo walked in without asking, mentally changing gears. "Hey, Professor!" he exclaimed, strolling into the office like he had no worries in the world.   
  
"Duo! What are you doing here?" Professor G demanded in that nasally voice of his. Duo glanced behind him and saw that Andrew had become one clenched muscle, although his face remained impassive as he stared at the scientist. So far, so good. Kinda.  
  
"We have a problem," he said seriously, dropping the other attitude as easily as he'd put it on. "You've got a traitor on board the station. Someone took our last mission brief and sent it to Oz. The other guys got hammered, and I would have too, if I'd been around. We're here to find him."  
  
G looked over his shoulder at Andrew. "Why did you bring him along?"  
  
"He's going to go through the computers while I keep an eye on everyone. We'd appreciate it if you'd get everyone into the main computer room."   
  
"This is ridiculous! There's no traitor here!"  
  
"Yes, there is. We already tracked at least one of them back here to your lab. Heero is still looking for links to the other labs." Actually, they were all sort of sharing that responsibility, but Duo wasn't about to let G know about the others, not just yet.   
  
"There are traitors in all of the labs?" G asked, a dangerous light in his eyes.   
  
Duo shrugged. "We don't know yet. We're hoping to catch a couple of them here so we can question them. Will you call them to the main room now?"  
  
G muttered something under his breath, but he activated the comm. system and gave the proper orders. "You wanna come and watch?" Duo invited playfully.   
  
"This is my station," G said grumpily, and marched out the door, leaving them behind.   
  
Duo glanced at Andrew. "You all right?"  
  
Andrew raised his head slightly, gritted his teeth, then nodded his head a fraction of an inch. "He *was* one of the scientists on our project," he said without moving his lips at all. That was a neat trick - Duo knew how to read lips, but not ventriloquism. He might want to learn it sometime. "But not one of the cruel ones. He never did anything worse than treat us like the experiments we were. That was about as good as things got. And all he did was give us physical examinations regularly."  
  
"How regularly?"  
  
"Once a day, unless they were checking for something. Then it was more often. Are you sure you trust him?"  
  
Duo nodded. "He's not the one who sold us out. If he had, Oz would have had a lot better information, as well as the location of all of our safe-houses. It wasn't him."  
  
Andrew nodded, keeping a neutral expression on his face even when G turned to glance at them. He didn't say anything else as they walked through the halls, and when they reached the main room, he simply seated himself on one of the many consoles connected to the main computer and brought up the security cameras for the entire facility on a few of the monitors, then started sifting through what was supposed to be the workers' personal correspondence, supposedly looking for evidence of the traitor. G was shooting some very suspicious looks at Andrew - he knew that Quatre wasn't the genius with computers that Heero was, and Andrew wasn't acting *anything* like Quatre, but Duo was quite confident that G would never guess the truth. Duo himself wouldn't have believed it, except that he'd actually seen the other world, and it was a little hard to argue with his double about the impossibility of his existence.   
  
Over the next few minutes, the work crew all arrived in the room. There were only about thirty of them, and they gave Duo some very strange looks as he ordered them to the opposite side of the room, but none of them argued, especially since he was gesturing with his gun. After ten minutes, he asked G, "Are they are all here?"  
  
"How should I know?" G snapped.   
  
Duo muttered a few choice curses to himself about G's helpfulness, but actually, things were going exactly as they'd planned. It was nice of him to be so predictably bad-tempered. "I'm going to search the base," he told Andrew. "Just to make sure there's no one hiding. Keep an eye on things here."  
  
Andrew mumbled something without ever looking over his shoulder, the perfect picture of a very focused individual who hadn't really heard the question he'd just answered. Duo shrugged and walked calmly out the door. He stepped across the hall, leaving the door open, took a few steps, then stopped. He pulled the transmitter out of his pocket. "All right. Go for it," he muttered, then turned back to the door. He stood in the hallway and carefully peeked around the edge, then pulled his head back and settled back against the wall. From his angle, he couldn't see any of the people, but he could see Andrew, still typing away, and above him, the security monitors. A few seconds later, he saw himself slowly moving through the station, checking doors, getting farther and farther away from the room where Andrew still worked.   
  
Duo grinned to himself. If the traitor was in the base, Kane would find him. And if the traitor was already in the room... they were providing them with the perfect opportunity to strike, or try to escape. And if none of that worked, Andrew might actually find something in the computers. But they were hoping the more direct route would work this time.   
  
He saw that Kane was now at the opposite end of the base, several minutes away if Andrew (Quatre) needed help. Sure enough, he heard swift steps and then suddenly someone with black hair struck at Andrew from behind, wrapping an arm around his throat and knocking the chair over. "Go get Chris!" the man shouted to someone else, and Duo heard footsteps rapidly approaching him.   
  
With a grin, he stepped into the doorway, gun held ready, and the man almost ran into him. "Hands up," he instructed coldly as Andrew grabbed the man and neatly flipped him over his shoulder. The man crashed to the ground, but almost immediately rolled over and grabbed at Andrew again, who sidestepped his attack and brought his flattened hand down on the man's outstretched arm. There was a sickening crack! as his arm broke, then Andrew pulled out a gun.   
  
"Freeze," he ordered in a voice even colder than Duo's.   
  
"Duo?" G asked, sounding very startled as Duo walked back into the room, the man in front of him, hands on his head.   
  
"Hiya," Duo said, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing the transmitter, setting it to both transmit and receive. "Hey, Kane?"  
  
"Yes?" Duo's voice asked over the transmitter, and Duo saw Kane walk up to one of the cameras and stare into it. There were a number of gasps from the mechanics who were now watching the drama unfold with wide eyes.  
  
"It worked. We've got two of them up here, but there's one more somewhere out there. His name is Chris," he added as an afterthought.  
  
He saw Kane's image turn to look at someone off screen. "Well, I found someone... but he's not quite in any condition that I can ask him his name. He tried to kill me though."  
  
"Injuries?" Andrew asked in that same cold, impersonal voice.  
  
"Marginal," Kane replied.  
  
"Damage to prisoner?"  
  
"He'll live. I think."  
  
"Show him to the camera," Andrew said.   
  
Kane immediately walked off camera and dragged a body back. Blood stained one leg as he easily lifted the man up so his face was near the camera.  
  
"Is that Chris?" Andrew asked his prisoner.  
  
"No. Ahhh!" he shouted as Andrew reached out and squeeze his broken arm.  
  
"Don't lie to me. Is that Chris?" he asked, his hand poised to squeeze his arm again.  
  
"Yes," he replied sulkily.  
  
"Bring him up here," Andrew said to Kane, his eyes never traveling from his own prisoner.   
  
"Mission complete?" Kane asked, sounding a whole lot like Heero for a second.   
  
"Yours is," Andrew replied, and Kane's entire demeanor immediately changed, his face relaxing into a broad grin.   
  
"Gotcha. Be there in a few minutes. Have fun!" he said cheerfully, then walked off the screen after tossing his prisoner over his shoulder.   
  
"You're not pilot 04," G said, staring at Andrew.  
  
"No, I'm not," Andrew replied evenly. "Duo, is there a room around here that I can use to interrogate him? It shouldn't take long."  
  
Duo grimaced at the matter-of-fact way that Andrew delivered that statement. He still remembered Kane shoving him up against the wall of the shuttle, and Andrew quietly preparing to torture him for information. He knew for a fact that Andrew hated torturing people, but for some reason, he was the best of it of all of their doubles. Something having to do with his space-heart and being able to tell if people were lying, but Duo thought they should still find someone else to do it, if Andrew hated it that much.  
  
"Back there," Duo said, gesturing with his head. He looked at the guy in front of Andrew. "You know, you might just want to tell us everything you know now, it would probably be a lot less painful."  
  
The man glared at him. Duo shrugged slightly and poked his prisoner in the back with his free hand. "How about you? Feel like talking? I can always give you to him," he nodded towards Andrew, who had picked up his prisoner by the back of the shirt and was now carrying him out the door. Even from here Duo could see the man's one good hand at the collar of his shirt, trying to pull it away from his neck so he could take a deep breath. "When he's done with your friend, of course."   
  
The man paled as he watched what appeared to be a sixteen-year-old boy lift a man twice his size with apparent ease and carry him around. "What is he?" he asked in a whisper.  
  
"We're special people," Kane said sarcastically as he walked into the room with a bounce in his step and the man still slung over his shoulder. He dropped him onto the floor. "Someone might want to treat him, if you want him to live past the next couple hours," he informed G. "He's already out from blood loss. And I hit him on the head."  
  
"Who are you?" G asked, ignoring the man on the ground.   
  
"I'm Kane," he said, pointing at himself. "That's Duo. Don't worry, we're on the same side. Do you really want this guy to die? Cause I don't care that much."  
  
"One of you, treat him!" G snapped to the rest of the mechanics, none of whom looked like they wanted to come within thirty feet of Kane.  
  
"Don't worry, I won't kill anyone," Kane said, backing up away from the body. "Unless you're a traitor." He looked at Duo and grinned. "Actually, should we bother to save this one? We're probably just going to kill him anyway."  
  
Duo grinned back at him, knowing how upsetting it was to see the two of them with identical expressions. "Nah. I'm thinking that G will want to talk with them about how they infiltrated his lab," he replied, glancing at G, whose expression was varying between anger and curiosity. "But you're right, they'll probably end up dead anyway, in the end."  
  
"Doesn't bother me," Kane said cheerfully, seating himself in the chair that Andrew had recently occupied. "Did he find anything here?" he asked.  
  
"I don't think so, but you might as well check," Duo said, keeping one eye on his prisoner.   
  
For several minutes there was no sound but Kane happily humming to himself as he typed on the computer, the low murmur of conversation coming from the mechanics, and the occasional thud from the room where Andrew had taken the man. Duo tried very hard not to think about that.  
  
Suddenly a single gunshot cut through the sound, and everyone turned to look in the direction of the room. A few seconds later, Andrew emerged from the room and firmly closed the door behind him, looking more tired than Duo could ever remember him being. More than just physically exhausted - more like sick to his soul. It wasn't a pretty expression.  
  
"We got what we came for," he told Duo, avoiding looking at anyone else. "These three were all there were here, but there's at least one on all of the other stations, and there's someone following that girl around."  
  
Duo frowned. "Who?"  
  
"Diana's double."  
  
Someone's tracking us using Relena?! Duo knew that Relena was necessary for peace, but they might have to kill her anyway if they couldn't convince her that Heero wasn't interested, or if they couldn't figure out how the Hell she was tracking them. It was no good trying to protect the future if you were getting killed today.   
  
"Is he..." Kane asked, tilting his head towards the closed door.   
  
"Dead. It was best," Andrew said shortly. "Lets go."  
  
"Wait a minute!" G protested, and Duo saw Andrew hunch his shoulders protectively, and realized that he was just barely hanging on to his self-control.   
  
"Hey, Andrew, you go wait in the shuttle," Duo ordered, wondering if Andrew was going to listen to him. Andrew did not need to be dealing with G right now, but they didn't really have a command structure, and even if they did, Andrew was quite capable of telling Duo where to stick his order.  
  
Instead, Andrew shot him a look of profound gratitude before nodding formally and walking out the door.   
  
"Kane, you want to go with him?" Duo asked, but Kane shook his head.  
  
"Nah, I'll stick with you," he said, eyeing G suspiciously. It seemed that he still didn't trust G any farther than he could throw him. Less, actually, because Kane could probably throw G a good distance, and would, given any excuse.  
  
"You wanna go to your office?" Duo asked.  
  
G grumbled under his breath but quickly led the way back to his office after giving orders to lock up the other two traitors. "Who are you?" he demanded of Kane as soon as they closed the door.   
  
"I'm Kane," he said, crossing his arms. "I told you before. Do you have a problem with your short-term memory?"  
  
"All right then - *what* are you?"  
  
"Doesn't mince words, does he?" Kane asked. "In a word, I'm him," he said, jerking his head towards Duo.  
  
"What?"  
  
"He's from another world," Duo said. Much as he enjoyed watching Kane tease G, he actually had to work with him in the future and didn't want him too angry. "A parallel dimension. He's my double from that world. He and some of the others accidentally got sent here, and they're helping us out until they head back."   
  
"Why?" G asked suspiciously.  
  
"Because your guys helped us in our world," Kane replied.  
  
"And the one in the shuttle is 04's double?"  
  
"Got it."  
  
"How did he lift Bradley like that?"  
  
Duo glanced at Kane, unsure of how much he wanted to reveal.   
  
"Let's just say that just like your guys aren't exactly normal, we don't quite fall into that realm, either," Kane responded. "And we're not going to discuss it any further, got it?" The threat in his voice was unmistakable, and G backed up a step.  
  
"What now?" he asked Duo.  
  
"Now? Now we're heading back to Earth. You know how to reach me if you have any missions. We're going to take care of the rest of the traitors ourselves. Don't send word about him to any of the other labs, either," he said, nodding towards Kane.  
  
"You're going to pull the same stunt there?" G asked, amusement in his voice.  
  
"Approximately. Anyway, don't contact them, we don't know if their communications are secure."  
  
"What are you going to do with those two assholes?" Kane asked.  
  
G snorted. "I'm going to find out exactly how they ended up on my staff, and then I'm going to kill them."  
  
"Good," Duo said with a sharp nod. "See you around!"  
  
Kane spared one more glare at G, then obediently followed Duo back into the hall and started walking back to the shuttle.   
  
"He was afraid of you," Kane observed.  
  
"Who? G?"  
  
"All of them, actually. Have you ever killed any of them?"  
  
Duo laughed. "No, not really. They just know that you can't keep Shinigami down, and that if I ever had a reason, nothing would stop me from killing them."  
  
Kane stopped short. "What did you say?"  
  
"I said that if they did something to me, they know that I'd hunt them down and kill them."  
  
"No, before that. What did you call yourself?"  
  
"Shinigami," Duo said, forcing a grin to his face. "He's..."  
  
"The God of Death, right?" Kane asked with a grimace.  
  
"You know about him on your world?" Duo asked, unsure of whether to be pleased or dismayed by this news.  
  
"He's just an ancient god there, one of many," Kane replied.  
  
"Then how did you know..."  
  
"How do you think Shin picked his name?" Kane asked. "He was doing some research for something or other, and stumbled on the information. When it came time to pick his name, he picked a shorter version of the God of Death." He shrugged. "Why do you call yourself that?"  
  
"Long story, not too interesting," Duo said, stretching the truth slightly. "That reminds me, I never got to ask, you all picked your names, right?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"So how did everyone else pick their names? How about you?"  
  
"I once read a story when I was trying to understand humans better, so I could emulate them when I was spying, and I liked one of the characters."  
  
"What book?"  
  
"You've probably never heard of it - it's really old, I was just reading it because my instructor wanted me to see how human nature never changes. It's called the Bible."  
  
Duo felt his eyebrows rising. "The Bible?"  
  
"You have heard of it," Kane said, sounding mildly surprised.  
  
"Of course I've heard of it! Hasn't everyone?"  
  
"No. I told you, it's ancient. Very few people have ever heard of it, much less read it in my world. So you know where my name came from."  
  
"I don't remember anyone named Kane."  
  
"Well, they spelled it differently. I spell it K-A-N-E, they spelled it C-A-I-N, but it's basically the same name."  
  
Duo stared at him. "You named yourself after a guy who killed his brother? The first murderer?"  
  
Kane smiled sheepishly. "Well, I was still working for the Alliance back then, my priorities were a little different. I actually did try to capture Diana, Brian, Andrew and Devin back then, along with Shin, so I did do my best to kill my brothers and sisters. Luckily Diana caught us by surprise, otherwise we would have taken them all back to the Alliance. By the time I found out how the Alliance had screwed us, I was already used to the name. It's mine now." They started walking again.  
  
Duo nodded - he knew about making a name your own. "OK, so how about the others?"  
  
"Brian... well, you know how it is with him, everything for the mission. He picked Brian because it was an ordinary name, one that wouldn't stand out."  
  
Duo snorted. "Figures."   
  
"Let's see... Devin named himself after Dev Carter, because he saw that Dev was nice to Andrew, and made him... less unhappy."  
  
"Wait, when did Dev do that?"  
  
"He used to work for the Alliance, didn't we ever mention that? He worked on our project, saw what they were doing to us, and defected to the Rebels. He met up with Diana years later."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, Andrew. I'm not quite sure why he picked that name. I think he once played a part... I mean he went on a spying mission, pretending to be someone's son, and his name was Andrew for that mission. I think he liked pretending to be normal, even if it was just for a little while. He really is the best of us," he said, shaking his head slightly. "Diana's... well, she's Diana, there's no one like her in the entire world - any world," he corrected himself. "But Andrew's the most human. He shouldn't..." he cut himself off as they reached the hanger. "Don't tell him I said any of this, because he refuses to believe he's anything special, and he'll try to kick my ass," Kane hissed before banging on the door.   
  
Andrew immediately opened it. His face was still a little gray. "Can we leave now?" he asked immediately.  
  
"No gun?" Kane asked in return as he stepped inside. "What if it wasn't us?"  
  
"I felt you," Andrew replied. "Can we leave?"   
  
"Yeah, sure," Duo said, also climbing inside as Kane headed for the cockpit. "Did anyone try to get in while we were gone?" he asked, his eyes traveling to the back where Deathscythe resided.   
  
"No."  
  
Duo carefully closed the hatch behind him. "Are you all right?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Duo looked at him. Andrew wasn't as talkative as himself or Kane, not by a long stretch, but right now he was doing his best Heero Yuy impression (or maybe it was his Brian impression), which couldn't be a good sign. "Come on. What's wrong?"  
  
"I completed the mission."  
  
"That's a bad thing?"  
  
"I... I destroyed that man's mind before I killed him. I stripped all the valuable information he had away, and tore apart the rest in the process. I... I hate doing that, but it's how I was trained... that's the only way I know to get information out of an enemy."   
  
Duo grimaced. "You know... I could have done that. You didn't have to."   
  
Andrew shook his head. "It's what I'm good at. Refusing to use that against my enemies... it would be allowing my weakness to rule me, and I won't let that happen."  
  
For a moment Duo thought he was listening to Wufei - the fact that their doubles had been raised together tended to come up in conversations at the oddest times, when they reflected views that Duo associated with people other than their doubles among the pilots. "Caring about people isn't a weakness."  
  
"It gets in the way, though," Andrew said moodily.  
  
"You're good at a lot of things," Duo protested. "You shouldn't have to do this if you don't want to! The computer stuff alone is enough to keep you busy, isn't it?"  
  
Andrew didn't respond. After several seconds, he said, "I think I want to be alone right now."  
  
Duo wasn't so sure if that was a good idea, but he had a feeling that with the mood Andrew was in, he'd throw him through the wall if he didn't leave, so he walked up to the cockpit, leaving Andrew sitting by himself.  
  
"What did you say to him?" Kane asked as soon as he entered.   
  
"He... shouldn't be doing that. It's killing him," Duo said in an unusually somber tone.   
  
"Diana doesn't usually let him do it, no matter what he says, but he can't stand to disappoint her by letting himself show weakness like that," Kane replied, his feet propped up on the control panel. "It's almost a competition between the two of them, to see who can maneuver the other better. If Diana wins, Andrew is out of the area when we need someone interrogated, and if he wins, he's around and does it."  
  
"That's pretty messed up."  
  
"Yeah, that pretty much describes all of us."  
  
"What's with Diana and all these weird mind games?"  
  
"She likes to be challenged, and there aren't many people who can keep up with her. Matching herself against all of the Alliance was the first real challenge she ever had, and there's so much at stake there... it's fun for her to play with us, when she can, because there's not so much at stake. I don't like them much, but I play them for her, sometimes," Kane said with a shrug.  
  
"She's weird."  
  
"This from the human who launched an attack against an entire world by himself in a giant death robot who calls himself Shinigami?" Kane asked with a grin.  
  
Duo snorted, relieved to be back to normal patterns. "Yeah, sure. And you're an albino freak who named himself after the first murderer." He was grateful for the new ammunition - there were only so many insult variants on 'albino freak' you could come up with before it started to get boring.   
  
Kane grinned, obviously ready to get into another shouting match with him over who was weirder. "Oh yeah?"  
  
-----------------------------------------  
  
Diana sighed in satisfaction as she washed her hair, getting the rest of the remaining grime out. She knew that she should have gotten a little farther away before triggering the explosions, but planting those last explosives had taken longer than she'd expected, and they had a timetable to maintain.   
  
She and Brian had just gotten back from a commando mission where they blew up a mobile suit factory while the others were out. They had to be driving Oz crazy, suddenly striking in four and five and even six places at the same time, instead of just two or three or maybe four. Diana smiled to herself as she scrubbed at an especially stubborn soot stain. She'd never admit it (especially to Kane who did not need the encouragement), but there was a certain satisfaction in just blowing things up. It was so much more straightforward than most of the things she did - you set the explosives, got clear, and then triggered them. If you did your job right, the target area disappeared in a cloud of smoke and fire, if you didn't, it didn't. It was a little harder to determine success when you were competing for the public's sympathy.   
  
It was also the longest time she'd ever spent out in the open without having a panic attack, and she was very proud of herself. She still wasn't comfortable outside, but at least she wasn't freaking out and making stupid mistakes like the one that had gotten her and Duo captured in the first place.   
  
With a sigh, she stepped out of the shower, toweling herself dry and pulling on a robe before she turned her attention to her hair. It was getting long enough to be a nuisance - she really ought to cut it (unlike Kane and Duo, she did not have a fixation on the length of her hair), but current style in the colonies dictated longer hair. Hopefully that would change soon so she could cut it without appearing unfashionable. Sometimes she hated how much her work dictated the way she lived her life. The way I live my life? Ha! My work is my life and I know it, she grumbled to herself. Finally her hair was dry enough so that it wouldn't drip water on the floor, and stepped out of the bathroom. She heard soft conversation from upstairs, concentrated long enough to identify Quatre talking to Brian, and then filtered it out of her consciousness.  
  
She was headed for the bedroom she'd claimed for herself and Andrew when she heard someone knocking on the door, and frowned. None of the pilots would knock before entering, and no one else should know their location. She concentrated on her hearing, and heard someone call, "Heero!"  
  
What sort of idiot is going to go around yelling for a terrorist? she wondered, looking around desperately for the nearest pair of contact lenses. She had to shut the girl up, whoever she was. The first ones she saw had been one of Kane's attempts to duplicate Duo's unusual eye color, but these were much more purple than blue, which was going to make her look very strange, but there was nothing she could do about it. She jammed them in and hurried to the door, changing her hair and skin tones to something appropriate to match her new eye color, then walked to the door and pulled it open.   
  
There was a young woman (girl, really) with light blue eyes and blond hair, dressed in what had to be some sort of uniform. No one would wear that if they had a choice, right? Her face fell when she saw Diana, and she frowned. "Who are you?" she asked.  
  
"Who are you?" Diana replied in a slow drawl.   
  
"I am Relena Peacecraft," the girl announced. "I need to speak with Heero right away, it's urgent."  
  
So this was her double. No wonder Heero grimaced every time she was mentioned. Diana was emphatically not impressed. The future of the world rested on her?  
  
"He's not here."  
  
"Oh, but he is, I saw him before," Relena corrected her. "Heero!" she shouted again, and Diana hid a grimace.  
  
She must have seen Brian. Damn it! I've got to shut her up. "He's not available right now," Diana said coldly. "Can I take a message for him?" Anything to get rid of her.   
"No! It's very urgent that I speak with him right away! Who are you, anyway?" Relena demanded.  
  
Diana had an idea that came from the more malicious part of her mind, and automatically switched gears, leaning one arm against the doorframe, sticking her hip out, and letting the robe fall open to expose most of her breasts. She smiled seductively. "I'm a hooker."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"I'm a prostitute," Diana clarified, running her free hand through her still-damp hair. "You know, sex for money? But I'm the best - nothing like those tramps you find on the street. I just finished, actually. I'm just waiting to be paid, then I'll be out of here."   
  
Relena's mouth opened and closed several times. "Who?" she finally got out.  
  
Diana's smile broadened. "All of them, actually," she said, and heard a choking noise from inside the house. She turned her head slightly, and saw Quatre staring at her. She winked at him and then turned her head back. "Really, five is a bit more than I usually handle, but they're paying me well, and I had a lot of fun. From what I understand, there are already a couple of couples among them, but they still get together sometimes, and they wanted to add a little spice. It was a bit strange being the only girl, but we all managed just fine." Diana leaned forward, exposing a bit more of her chest, and leered at Relena. "You wanna play sometime? I'm open minded."  
  
"It... it can't be true!" Relena protested weakly. "Where's Heero?"  
  
"Sleeping. I tired him out," Diana replied with a yawn of her own, and heard more choking sounds from Quatre. "Me and the one with the braid. Listen, honey, I don't know what he's been telling you, but I don't think you have a chance. The two of them seemed very happy together. But then, that's just my opinion."  
  
Relena looked very much as if she'd just been smacked across the back of the head with a large stick. "I... I need to talk to Heero," she repeated automatically.  
  
"I told you, he's still asleep. Look, when he wakes up I'll tell him that you stopped by, OK? Bye." And without waiting for a response, Diana closed the door in her face. She waited several seconds, but the yelling didn't resume. Several seconds after that, she heard footsteps walking away, and breathed a sigh of relief. Pulling her robe closed again, she turned to look at Quatre. "I'm an idiot on this world!"  
  
"What... what did you tell her?" Quatre repeated, with the same dazed expression on his face as was on Relena's.  
  
"Betcha that Heero won't have quite as many problems with her from now on," Diana remarked.  
  
"You told her that we were... we were..."  
  
"Having a massive orgy," Diana provided.   
  
"We would never do that!"  
  
"I know that. She doesn't. But then, she doesn't believe that Heero and Duo are together, either. And I had to give her some reason for being here."  
  
"But a prostitute?"  
  
Diana shrugged. "She believed it, didn't she? She doesn't think much of you guys, though."  
  
Quatre's mind seemed to be functioning again. "Yes, well... she's been interested in Heero, not in the rest of us."  
  
"She doesn't think much of him, either. Otherwise she'd respect his choice."  
  
Quatre shrugged slightly, an embarrassed smile on his face. "I don't know how Heero's going to feel about what you told her, though..."  
  
"Diana," Brian said from the doorway to the room with the computer in it.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked, immediately picking up that much from his tone and body language. All of a sudden the light mood in the room vanished.  
  
"I just hacked into Oz... they have Shin."  
  
  
  
  
  
Sorry about this last section, but I just couldn't resist. Sometimes Relena is such an idiot in the series! I mean, I can understand maybe not turning a known terrorist in if you agree with their principles, but not if said terrorist has repeatedly threatened to kill you!   
  
All right, now that I've had my little rant, I'm done. Hope I didn't piss off too many Relena-lovers. 


	12. Part 11

"Here's the latest one, sir," one of his aides said as he handed Treize a paper copy of the latest article in a stream of propaganda that his people were endeavoring to fight. The pattern had started the day after the girl escaped - once or twice a day, an article would suddenly appear all over the web, no sign of how it was spread or who wrote it, although Velanz insisted that it was the girl's work. Whoever was doing it was very skillful, always sticking to the truth but using words guaranteed to stir the blood of the civilians who supported Oz.  
  
He quickly scanned it, then tossed it to his desk with a sigh. It was an excellently written piece on the proper and humane treatment of prisoners, one that hinted at without outright stating that Oz did not treat it's prisoners well, and that the matter should be investigated. Actually, in most cases, Treize had the utmost confidence in his people to treat their prisoners well, especially since most of their enemies now were members of the former Alliance, and their prisoners had often been comrades-in-arms before the split. It was only where the Gundam pilots and those associated with them were involved that discipline began to break down, because of the sheer number of people the pilots had killed, and because the pilots never existed before the war, at least not to the soldiers. Still, he had no doubts that within a few hours the Romafeller foundation would be wanting to send down an independent team to investigate the prisons. Not because Romafeller cared about the treatment of prisoners, but to appease the masses that they supposedly represented.  
  
The last one had been about the distribution of resources within the colonies, and that had nearly sparked riots in three colonies and two major cities. Only declaring martial law in those places had stopped it, and of course, that did little to endear Oz to the people in those cities. But they couldn't have let the riots take place, or they would have lost even more prestige. It was a no-win situation, and one that he'd been very skillfully pushed into. The girl was very good.  
  
He was halfway tempted to let slip the fact that Romafeller was the money behind Oz, if only so that the girl could target *them* for a while. He was beginning to see why Velanz wanted her so badly, and why he had such trouble doing so. From the brief time he'd had with her, a few of Wufei's comments, and some hints that Velanz had made, he knew that Velanz had held the girl for close to six months, probably tortured her the entire time, and had failed to break her. He also knew that Velanz hated her, and took her resistance to his methods as a personal insult.  
  
Treize had ordered two men to follow him around at all times, and had instructed them that he was not allowed to see the prisoner under any circumstances. They'd held Wufei's double - Shin - for three days now. For some reason, Treize refused to refer to him as Five. Maybe it was because Velanz did. He'd been unconscious the entire time, first because of the blow to the head, and later because of a cocktail of drugs to keep him that way. Velanz had instructed some of their scientists on how to make a set of cuffs that would hold him. They were nasty things, held together by an electromagnetic field, and not by chains, capable of withstanding up to a half-ton of pressure. Until they were completed they would not wake him up, and Treize wasn't sure if he was going to do it, anyway.  
  
There was no way that he was letting Velanz anywhere near him, no matter what. It was obvious that he was the one Wufei had been referring to, the one who'd gotten separated from the others, so he'd have no useful information about the Gundam pilots, and it was unlikely he'd talk in any case. If he had no useful information, there was no reason to torture him for whatever he did know. Besides that, Treize kept having flashbacks of Velanz calmly shooting a bullet into the boy's leg when he refused to cooperate.   
  
The light on his comm. system flashed, and he hit the button to activate it. "Yes?"  
  
"Your Excellency, Mr. Velanz wishes... quite strongly... to speak with you," said an irritated voice. Velanz did not like his guards, and made no secret of the fact. As he grew more irritated with them, he tended to try to make the feeling universal, and was generally successful.   
  
"Put him on," Treize said.  
  
"Khushrenada?" said his own voice, and Treize grimaced.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Have you seen the latest propaganda announcement?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"She knows we have him."  
  
This was the man's only real value - he did know his enemies, Treize had to admit. "Are you certain?"  
  
"Positive. She does this to taunt us. No one was within the organization was supposed to know about this, but she does already. It's also her way of indirectly protecting it."  
  
As always, Velanz's classification of Shin as 'it' caught Treize by surprise. "And what do you recommend?" he asked coolly.  
  
"Tell them that we're ready to make a trade," Velanz said promptly.   
  
"How?"  
  
"Leave a file in one of the reports on prisoner transport. Name it Tiger. They've probably been getting into your system without problems for days now, they'll see the file and get whatever message you put in it, and respond that way." Even over the comm. system his voice sounded sullen. "They seem to have no problems getting in an out of our computers without a problem. We haven't been able to find the back door they have, yet. I'm assuming your five can do something similar. I'll start working on something right away."  
  
"Yes, please give me something to review as quickly as possible," Treize said smoothly, and heard a long silence on the other hand as Velanz realized what he'd just done. He had absolutely no intention of letting Velanz take care of this all by himself, and he'd just maneuvered his double into a position where he couldn't just set it up himself with the flimsy excuse that 'he hadn't known' that Treize wanted to see it.   
  
It took Velanz several seconds to get control of himself, and Treize enjoyed himself by imagining Velanz's expression. Finally he said, "Yes sir. I'll have it sent to you as quickly as possible."  
  
Treize cut the connection without saying another word. He had no doubts that Velanz's plan would work - the girl struck him as the protective type, based on how she'd treated pilot 02. She'd probably willingly sacrifice her own life for one of her people. Foolish, that, but understandable. And he was looking forward to facing her again, now that they were on more equal footing, knowledge-wise. But he didn't know what Velanz would do to her if they did get her, and he found himself half-way hoping that he wouldn't have to find out.  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
After cleaning out Instructor H's lab (who was incredibly surprised and upset at what he saw as Quatre's changed behavior), they headed back to Earth. There'd been only one traitor there, and Andrew said that he didn't recognize H as one of the doctors on the project, for one reason or another, and suggested that maybe H had been one of the original scientists who'd been forced to work on the project and then killed. Whatever the case, it led to both Andrew and Kane being a lot more relaxed after that mission than the one at G's. Andrew had been very surprised at H's concern for him (Quatre), and more than a little disturbed, too. He was very used to seeing doctors or scientists as automatically being the enemy, H's concern had thrown him off-balance.  
  
They got back down to Earth without any problems, ditched the transport, hid Deathscythe, and then headed back for the safehouse. They were still five minutes down the road when Andrew suddenly gasped. "Something's wrong," he said through clenched teeth.  
  
Duo reached for the gun that lay on the seat beside him, but Andrew shook his head. "Not that sort of trouble. Just... something's wrong." He swallowed, looking a little gray, even for him. "It's Shin."  
  
"What?" Kane asked, looking at him.   
  
"I don't know," Andrew said, almost moaning, pressing his hands against his forehead. "Just hurry up and get back!" He closed his eyes and sank down into the seat, his lips moving silently, his forehead creased in concentration.  
  
"Andy, are you all right?" Duo asked.  
  
Andrew opened his eyes. "I hate this!" he exclaimed, and slammed his fist into the side of the jeep, which dented. He stared at it for a second, then glanced apologetically at Duo. "Sorry about that."  
  
Duo shrugged. "If we hadn't stolen it I might mind more. You OK?"  
  
"I hate it," Andrew said darkly, his eyes distant. "If I could, I'd rip it out of my head... or my heart, or wherever the hell it is."  
  
Duo felt his eyebrows raising - he couldn't remember Quatre ever wanting to be rid of his kokoro no uchuu, no matter how much pain it caused him. "You do?"   
  
"I know things are happening... I feel people's pain... and I can't do anything about it!" he exclaimed, slamming his fist into the door again. A larger dent appeared.   
  
Duo had previously estimated that it would take five minutes to get back to the safehouse, traveling well above the speed limit but still with some modicum of safety. They made it back in three.  
  
Andrew leapt out of the jeep before it had even begun to slow, and despite himself, Duo gasped, certain that Quatre's double was about to have his neck broken. Instead, Andrew simply rolled - once - when he hit the ground and took off running towards the house.   
  
By the time that Kane had parked the jeep in the back where it wouldn't be seen (it was stolen, after all), and they'd run inside, Andrew was already seated at one of two laptops, typing away as he stared at the screen, Diana looking over his shoulder. Heero was hunched over the other laptop, Brian watching over his shoulder. "What happened?" Duo asked, immediately picking up on the tense atmosphere in the room.  
  
"They have Shin," Devin said shortly, and Kane's entire face fell. For a moment he looked incredibly pained, then that expression was replaced by one that the others would have probably called Shinigami if they saw it on his face. It didn't look any prettier on Kane's face than it did on Duo's.  
  
"Are you sure?" Duo asked.  
  
Brian shot him a look that could have withered gundanium. "They're constructing the type of cuffs that the Alliance uses on us. The only reason that they'd do that would be to hold Shin. They're covering up his location pretty well, though. We're looking through their files now for a clue, though." His gaze returned to the screen.  
  
"How did your mission go?" Diana asked.  
  
"There were three traitors in the first place, and one in the second. There are more in all the other stations, though," Kane said, glancing at Andrew. "They're tracing you guys through the people at the other stations, and they'll keep doing it until we get to them too. They're also tracking us through that girl... Relena something."  
  
Quatre suddenly turned very red and started choking. Trowa helpfully slapped him on the back as he set down the glass of water he'd been drinking. "What's wrong?" Duo asked.  
  
Quatre shook his head, looked at Diana, and then covered his eyes with one hand.   
  
"Oh. Her. We might not have as much trouble with her anymore," Diana said thoughtfully.   
  
"Why not?" Duo asked suspiciously, and noticed that most of the room was staring at her.  
  
"She came by here yesterday," Diana said with a slight grin. Then she glanced at Quatre, who was still bright red and refusing to meet anyone's gaze. Duo wasn't sure what to make of that. With what he knew about Diana, he could think of two possible reactions: the first would be horror and disgust at Relena's actions, accompanied by an off-hand (although completely serious) suggestion that they kill her. The other reaction would be amusement. Duo doubted that Quatre would be reacting this way if Diana had suggested that they kill her, but he couldn't figure out what would cause him to react that way.  
  
"So what happened?"  
  
"She must have seen Brian and me coming in, because she demanded to see Heero," Diana commented, and Duo barely held back a wince. He could imagine the reaction that would have gotten. Diana didn't react too well to being told what to do. "I told her he didn't want to see her. Then she wanted to know who I was."  
  
Quatre let out a low groan and buried his face in Trowa's chest.  
  
"Well, what did you say?" Duo asked when Diana showed no sign of continuing, watching Quatre with an amused expression on her face.   
  
"I told her that I was the prostitute you five had hired to participate in a massive orgy," Diana replied, a hint of a smile on her face.  
  
Heero actually stopped typing to stare at her, a slightly incredulous look on his face. Trowa blinked several times as Quatre continued to bury his face in Trowa's chest. Duo's jaw dropped.   
  
"You what?!"  
  
"Well, I had to give her some excuse - she wanted to know who I was, and I couldn't tell her the truth."  
  
"And that was the only excuse you could come up with?"   
  
Diana shrugged. "It was the first thing that came to mind. But I might have frightened her off when I told her how good the five of you were in bed."  
  
Wufei made a choking sound and suddenly spun and marched out of the room. A hint of pain crossed Diana's face before she got control of herself, and Duo suddenly realized that she'd thought that he was Shin, for a second.   
  
"I told her that the two of you were definitely together, too," Diana continued, all amusement gone from her manner. "I didn't get too graphic, but I think she might have finally gotten the message. I guess you'll see. If nothing else works, try inviting her to join you two."  
  
"Are you nuts? I don't want to touch her!"  
  
"Do you honestly think she's going to accept the offer? I offered, and she practically ran away."  
  
"You offered?" Duo asked, trying to picture Diana doing something like that.  
  
"Yes, it looked something like this," Diana said, opening up the first four or five buttons of her shirt and leaning forward, exposing an obscene amount of skin. Yup, he was quite positive that there wasn't a blemish anywhere on her entire upper torso. Then she leered at him, and he backed up a step, because there was nothing of Diana in that expression, and in his experience, that was a bad sign.  
  
"That was about her reaction, too," Diana remarked in a normal voice, closing up her shirt and standing straight up again. "Except that it was because of disgust and horror, not a healthy fear reaction."  
  
"Fear? Who's afraid?" Duo asked.  
  
"Not fear, then, wariness. That's a very good instinct to have. You saw me acting in an unusual way, and reacted appropriately. That makes you smarter than most of the Alliance, who still judge me solely on appearances. Their loss."  
  
"Yeah. Whatever. So you did that to Relena?" Duo couldn't help but grin at the expression he could imagine on Relena's face. "Man, I wish I could have been here to see that." Wufei came walking back in on that last comment and snorted in disgust.  
  
"Tiger," Brian suddenly said, and Diana's eyes swung back around to the screen, and abruptly all the emotion drained from her face and eyes. Duo knew her well enough by now to know that that was her reaction - actually, they all reacted the same way - when she got very upset.   
  
"What did you find?"  
  
"They left a message for me," Diana said, silently touching Andrew on the shoulder. He immediately rose and let her take his seat, although his eyes never left the screen. Diana's hands flew across the keyboard. Duo walked over to look, but all he saw was a bunch of random numbers and letters.   
  
"It's in code."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then how do you know they left it for you?"  
  
"I designed the code," Brian said suddenly, walking over to examine the screen. "When I was still with the Alliance. They know that."  
  
"It's Velanz," Diana growled, and it was amazing how much hate she managed to put into that one word. She finally stopped typing, and just stared at the screen, although it was still in code.  
  
"Can you read that?" Duo asked.  
  
"Yes. I got rid of the top encryption. This is easy."  
  
"Well, what does it say?"  
  
Diana closed her eyes slightly as Brian let out a low curse. Bad sign.   
  
"It's a ransom demand for Shin."  
  
"What? Where did you find this?"  
  
"It's in the middle of Oz's computer. Specifically, their prisoner transfer files. Velanz must be behind this - this is how we operate back home. I guess he got my message. I should have seen what he was planning," she said, sounding very angry with herself.  
  
"You sent him a message?" Heero asked sharply, and Duo knew exactly what he was thinking. If she'd actually gone far enough to communicate directly with him from this location, then there was a strong chance that this safe house had been compromised and that they should move out immediately.  
  
"No, not that kind of message. What sort of idiot do you take me for?" Diana asked, looking disgusted and a little hurt. She was switching in and out of that emotionless stage every couple of seconds now, which wasn't a good sign, either. "Latest propaganda message I sent out was on the ethical treatment of prisoners, to let Velanz know that we knew they had him."  
  
Duo blinked. "That's sort of... um, roundabout? Are you sure he got the message?"  
  
"He got it. We usually operate this way," Diana replied, eyes still on the screen.  
  
"What did he ask for?" Quatre asked softly, and Duo noticed that he had one hand pressed against his chest again.  
  
"Only one thing, actually, in return for Shin."  
  
"What?" Duo didn't like the sound of that.  
  
"Me."  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
Andrew barely managed to hold back a wince when Diana calmly announced what Velanz wanted. She was right - they should have anticipated this. Velanz even more fixated on capturing and breaking Diana than she was on killing him. He'd never forgotten that he once held her for half a year and couldn't break her, and she'd never forgiven herself for letting him escape when she had him and could have stopped his killing. The two were more alike than made him comfortable, except for the fact that Velanz had no soul (he meant that literally - he'd touched Velanz's mind with his own once, and it was an experience he didn't want to repeat) and Diana wasn't technically human.  
  
"What are you going to do?" Wufei asked her, but Andrew already knew the answer to that question.  
  
"Don't," he said abruptly.  
  
"I have to," she replied.   
  
"He's going to try to destroy you. He hates you."  
  
"Well, the feeling is mutual. I have to do this."  
  
"Shin wouldn't want this."  
  
"I don't remember asking his opinion in this matter," Diana said coldly, and he knew that he was shutting herself off, become 'the Tiger', the brutally efficient rebel commander who so terrified the Alliance soldiers. "Or yours. This has to be done. The Rebels won't survive long without us - we need to get back at the next juncture. Shin is the only one who can figure out when that is. That way, if something goes wrong, the five of you can get back."  
  
"We're not leaving you," Kane said stubbornly.  
  
"That's an order," Diana said softly. "If the time comes and I'm not with you, you *are* going back. And we need Shin. It's a reasonable exchange."  
  
They all stared at her. Andrew did his best to keep his expression as neutral as possible, knowing it would get to her. She met his gaze for a fraction of a second before dropping her eyes. "It's not like I'm planning on letting myself get killed by him. I have to make the exchange in fourteen hours, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stay there. If I see a chance to get out of there, I'm going for it."  
  
"And if you don't?" Devin asked quietly.  
  
"Then I'm relying on you to rescue me," Diana said with a slight smile. "I'm not really interested in killing myself yet. I wanted to rescue Shin, but they're not giving us enough time. So you're going to have to get me instead."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I don't know, you're going to have to figure it out. You're smart boys, you'll figure out something." Diana smiled slightly. "I trust you."  
  
Andrew knew that. He knew that she trusted them with her life. He just wasn't sure if he trusted himself.   
  
Diana knew that, but chose not to address the issue. "Come on, we've got work to do. Can you put a subdermal transmitter together in the next couple of hours?" she asked Brian.  
  
He nodded once. "I'll need to collect the parts, though."  
  
"Do it. We'll scrap together as many regular ones as we can - he'll be expecting it, and I don't want to disappoint him." She smiled again, but this smile had no kindness, no friendship in it at all. It was the smile of a predator, and in some ways, that was what she was, now. She really was the Tiger.  
  
Andrew hated it when she got this way, which happened fairly often. He couldn't touch her at all with his empathy when she was this way, it was like she wasn't even herself. In his mind, she was really two people (at least) - one was the person he loved and would die for, the other person was the merciless, ruthless killer who led the Rebels during their most stressful times. Diana was aware of the separation and hated it in herself, but couldn't - or wouldn't - get rid of it. The Tiger was an integral part of her, not the best part by a long shot, but it was part of her strength, and she wouldn't have survived as long as she had without it. That didn't mean she didn't break down after those sessions - it was hard to recognize, but he knew the signs. The last time she'd given an order that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of her people (saving thousands more in the process), he'd followed her a few nights later. She was picking fights in bars and with Alliance soldiers so that they'd beat her. She wasn't capable of self-destructive behavior because of the same modifications to her brain that had created the Tiger, but she could let other people hurt her, for a short period of time, anyway.   
  
Brian simply saluted, showing that he also recognized the shift within her, and then left. Devin exchanged a worried glance with Andrew before following Brian, leaving the Gundam pilots behind. The pilots were obviously aware that something had happened, but they weren't sure what. Andrew saw Quatre reach for his chest and grabbed his wrist. "Don't."  
  
"Don't what?"  
  
"Don't try to touch her right now. You'll just get hurt."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"She wasn't raised the same as the rest of us, so the triggers the scientists put in her mind, the ones that were supposed to turn us into the perfect little soldiers, they affected her differently. The result was... disturbing, and not at all what they wanted. She's managed to find a balance, but she's on the wrong side of that balance, now. Just leave her alone."  
  
---------------------------------  
  
  
Treize stared at the monitor, examining the silent image of Wufei's double, lying on a bed in the infirmary, kept unconscious by a cocktail of drugs fed to him intravenously. He was also strapped to the bed with heavy chains, just in case.   
  
The door to his office slid open, but he didn't bother to look up. There were only two people who would dare to enter his office without asking for permission first, and he trusted both of them implicitly. He even knew which of the two it was, because Lady Une was off touring the colonies.   
  
"What are you looking at?" Zechs asked in a low voice.  
  
"I'm looking at our guest. We already received a reply to the message left embedded in our own computers, you know."  
  
"We need to work on our security systems."  
  
"I know." Treize paused, then ran one finger along the screen, tracing the edge of Shin's jawline. "Velanz was overjoyed. He can't wait to get his hands on the girl."  
  
"And you?" Zechs asked, knowing immediately what was behind all of this.   
  
"I... find myself reluctant."  
  
"Reluctant to do what?"  
  
"I don't want to hand her over to him at all," Treize admitted after a moment's thought. "He strikes me as the sort of man who would hurt an enemy simply because he could. There's no elegance in that."   
  
"I agree entirely. So what do you intend to do about it?" Zechs asked suddenly, causing Treize to spin around and stare at him.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"I'm sorry," Zechs immediately apologized. "It almost sounded as if you were going to stand by and let that happen." The corner of his mouth quirked upwards slightly, and Treize knew that if he didn't have the mask on, he'd see that Zechs' right eyebrow had risen up near his hairline. "You are one of the most powerful men in the world, if I'm not mistaken."  
  
"The most powerful," Treize said, slightly miffed. "At least until Romafeller tries to remove me from power."  
  
Zechs snorted his opinion of them being able to do that. "So what are you going to do? Do you want to cancel the exchange?"  
  
"No. I do want to see her again," Treize admitted, and Zechs sighed. "I'll decide what to do once we have her again."  
  
"Be careful," Zechs warned. "Velanz will not be happy if he isn't given her immediately once she turns herself over."  
  
"He does not have a say in the matter," Treize replied coldly, and Zechs sighed once more, then turned to look at the monitor.  
  
"He does look very much like our dragon, doesn't he?" Zechs remarked in a polite voice.  
  
"Indeed," Treize responded.  
  
"No matter what we do, Wufei will not be happy with us," Zechs continued in the same tone.   
  
"You're just afraid he won't sleep with us anymore," Treize accused, and was rewarded by a slight smile from Zechs.  
  
"Well, there is that. I haven't even spoken to him since this entire mess started."  
  
"He's feeling torn - this sort of situation is outside the normal rules."  
  
"All the more reason to send them all back to their own world."  
  
"So we can get back to business as normal?" Treize asked, amused. "Us trying to take over the world, and them trying to stop us?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
---------------------------------  
  
  
"That's disgusting!" Duo exclaimed, looking more than a little green. "You're as bad as Heero. Ow!" he shouted as Heero gave his braid a sharp tug.   
  
"Bad as Heero?" Andrew asked with a slight frown as he watched Diana. Duo hadn't understood what 'subdermal transmitter' meant up until a few seconds ago, although he should have figured it out on his own.   
  
"Yeah," Duo said, wanting to avert his eyes and knowing that morbid curiosity would keep them glued to the scene in front of him. Brian had returned with Devin and had started work on some very small electrical device. When he was done, the result was a small metal cylindrical capsule, about four and a half centimeters long and about one centimeter in diameter. "He set his own leg after he jumped off a cliff."  
  
"You can't?" Kane asked, sounding surprised, and Duo groaned.   
  
"Not you too? Man, do I have to watch this?"  
  
"No," Diana replied shortly, critically examining the edge of the surgical blade that Andrew had stolen somewhere. Then, as he watched, she turned the blade on herself, cutting a short deep cut in the skin and muscle of her upper arm. She examined the wound just as she had just examined the blade, evidently found it lacking, and applied the blade again, making it a little deeper before she nodded in satisfaction. Then she picked up the little capsule and carefully inserted it into the wound she'd just made, poking it around a bit before she was satisfied with it's position. By then blood had run down her arm and was dripping into the kitchen sink over which she stood.   
  
"What are you doing?" he finally asked, trying not to stare as the wound sealed itself up before his eyes.   
  
"Planting a transmitter," she replied, pulling out a towel to clean up the blood.   
  
"*In* your arm?!"  
  
"Best place. They never find them there. We use it on a number of our spies. This particular type is powered by heat, so the heat from my body will keep it running much longer than any battery could. Velanz will search me for trackers and transmitters when he gets me, and I will be carrying quite a few of them, but if he finds enough that way, he'll think he got them all," Diana explained.   
  
"So, you're all better now?" Duo asked, looking at her now-clean arm.   
  
"My skin heals faster than any other part of me - they wanted us to be able to operate among people immediately after an operation, no matter what injuries we suffered. The muscle will heal in the next couple hours, especially since I was careful in cutting it."  
  
Duo thought that she was probably worse than Heero. At least he didn't cause his own injuries.  
  
"How long until we have to go?" he asked.   
  
"*We* are leaving in two hours and fifteen minutes," Diana replied, a firm accent on the first word. "You aren't coming."  
  
"What?! You can't do that!"  
  
"We have no guarantee that they won't try to ambush us when we meet to make the switch," Diana pointed out. "If it is, we'll try to fight our way out of it. In that situation, you would be more of a burden to us than an aid. Besides, you need to keep going. You can't let us interfere."  
  
Damn it, she's sounding more like Heero every time she opens her mouth.   
  
Duo would (reluctantly) admit that they were more likely to slow up their doubles, as long as they were on the ground and fighting hand-to-hand, but that didn't mean that he had to like it.   
  
"I am going," Wufei said suddenly.   
  
"No, you're not," Diana replied matter-of-factly. Great. This ought to be pretty, Duo thought, looking at the stubborn set of Wufei's chin. He wasn't about to back down, and Duo didn't think that Diana knew the meaning of the word.   
  
"I take full responsibility for myself," Wufei said quietly. "If it is a trap, you do not need to worry about me."  
  
"No."  
  
"If you attempt to leave me behind or knock me out, I will make an immediate attempt to rescue you as soon as I wake up," Wufei said calmly, and Duo felt like strangling both of them. Wufei was telling her that he was practically going to turn himself over to Oz if she didn't let him go along on what was possibly a trap?!   
  
Diana looked as if she was about to start with her own threats, when Andrew suddenly leaned over and tapped her shoulder. He cupped one hand around his mouth so only Diana could see his lips, and spoke silently for a few seconds. Diana stared at him, then transferred her gaze to Wufei, her eyes suspicious. "Fine. You can come." Diana spun around to glare at Duo. "And don't even think about trying the same trick. You're not coming. I know you wouldn't carry out that ridiculous threat - you're not as crazy as he is."  
  
That was a first - usually Duo was the first person that they looked to when the word 'crazy' was being tossed about. But in this case, she was right. Duo was far too much a pragmatist to follow up on a threat like that, especially if it was already too late to do anything about it. Wufei would do it just to be stubborn.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
"Does she always make a point of being late, or is it just us?" Zechs remarked into the silence that encompassed the empty warehouse that Velanz had chosen to make the switch in. He and Treize were standing apart from the group of soldiers clustered around Shin, and Velanz was standing halfway between them and the group. There were approximately eight soldiers standing in a circle around Shin, all with their guns aimed directly at his head.   
  
For his part, Shin seemed utterly contemptuous of the threat to his life, and of his company in general. He simply stood there, his face carefully void of expression, his hands cuffed in front of him, waiting.   
  
"She's here," Velanz said slowly, his eyes traveling around the room. Treize noted that Shin's eyes flicked once around the room before returning to the glassy-eyed stare he'd worn since they took him off the drugs and he woke up. "She's trying to retain control of the situation for as long as possible before she loses it entirely." He sounded smug.  
  
"No, actually we were just checking to make sure that you didn't have any extra people or suits hidden around here," said a calm voice from the other end of the warehouse. Treize spun just in time to see a figure step out of the shadows. He hid a shudder as he watched various colors flow like shadows across her skin, although there was nothing that could have caused those shadows to appear. "I never did thank you for the enhancements you gave us," Diana remarked in a casual tone, holding up a hand that faded from white to black and back again. "They make sneaking up on you so much easier."   
  
As she spoke, several other figures emerged from the darkness. The other four doubles of the pilots stepped up to flank her, gazing at the Oz soldiers and Trieze himself with identical blank expressions. Every single one of the boys carried a firearm in his hand. Then... his breath caught momentarily in his throat as he recognized a fifth figure when Chang Wufei also stepped out of the shadows. He made no secret of what he thought of the situation, leveling a hostile glare at their group in general and Treize and Zechs in particular.   
  
"Watch it, Tiger," Velanz warned, pointing to the soldiers who still kept their guns trained on Shin. Velanz did not carry a gun, or a weapon of any sort. Not only did Treize not trust him, he'd discovered that he wouldn't be particularly sorry if Velanz got killed if there was a fight. "Or he dies."  
  
There was no visible change in her expression, or in those of her comrades, but the sense of menace in the room suddenly increased. "If you touch him, you die," Diana stated matter-of-factly. "Are we making the switch or not?"  
  
"In the middle, you know what to do," Velanz instructed, a slight smile on her face. He nodded towards the group holding Shin, and two of the soldiers stepped away from the group to escort Shin to the middle of the room, while the rest kept their weapons trained on him. As soon as the trio started moving, Diana, flanked by two of her people, started to walk forward at the exact same pace, so they would meet exactly halfway between the two groups. Treize noted that the two who'd accompanied her were the doubles of pilot 01 and 03, and wondered why she'd chosen those two. He knew that she must have planned every aspect of this encounter, even if she never openly ordered them to do anything.   
  
The two groups met in the center of the open space, and Velanz hit the button that would unlock the cuffs around Shin's arms, and allow them to transfer the cuffs to Diana. His finger also hovered over the button that would detonate the explosives within the cuffs if they tried anything funny. Treize had been exceedingly unhappy when he found out about those additions, but Velanz insisted that they were necessary to keep them under control.   
  
The cuffs fell off Shin's hands, and 03's double caught them before they could hit the ground. Diana quietly embraced Shin, then said something to him, too quietly for them to hear. Treize was somewhat surprised by the gesture - somehow, he'd never thought that affection, love, even, was part of the bond between this girl and her comrades. Whatever she said to him, Shin backed up a step and made a quick half-bow to her. Diana nodded back, then held out her arms in front of her while 03 carefully closed the cuffs around her forearms. Her eyes flicked to Shin as he said something, then she nodded again.  
  
Treize saw one of the soldiers lean forward and say something to Diana, and then the other soldier grinned. Diana gazed at them both dispassionately, and then glanced at 01 as he said something. The corners of her lips curled upwards, and she gave a slow, graceful nod.   
  
Suddenly both of her escorts sprung forward at the soldiers, each slamming a flattened hand into the throats of the soldiers, instantly crushing their throats. The two soldiers fell to their knees, hands grasping at their throats in a vain attempt to get air. The four children stood over them, watching dispassionately as they died. As soon as they did so, Diana nodded once more to her people, then neatly stepped over the bodies and walked back over to the soldiers, who looked very angry and ready to punish her if given the slightest excuse.   
  
She didn't give them the excuse, however, merely presenting her hands to them so that they could examine the bindings. While they did so, she turned her head towards Treize.   
  
"My apologies about your men," she said conversationally. "However, they were slightly... impolite, and my men are somewhat overprotective of me. I'm sure you understand," she said with a cool smile.  
  
"I had given instructions that you not be bothered," Treize remarked, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her statement. "I'm disappointed that they were unable to follow such simple instructions."  
  
She gazed at him without speaking, then her eyes shifted to her group. The three who'd been with her and returned to the others, and now they all stood, watching Diana. It was especially disturbing to see Shin and Wufei standing right next to each other. They looked like mirror images of each other, one dark, the other light, both dangerous. Wufei gave him one more poisonous glare, then turned and slid into the shadows. After a few moments, the other five turned at exactly the same moment and also disappeared into the shadows.   
  
Treize spun around when he heard the sound of flesh striking flesh, and saw Diana stagger backwards from the force of the blow. Velanz was drawing his hand back for another punch when one of the soldiers grabbed his arm and restrained him.   
  
"You will not touch the captive," Treize told him calmly. "If I hear of another occurrence like this, you will have no access to her whatsoever."  
  
He was expecting Velanz to explode, so he was unpleasantly surprised when Velanz suddenly became quiet, stopping his struggles entirely. All of his attention was directed at Diana, who stood in the middle of the same circle of soldiers, her face unreadable.   
"Very, well, Khushrenada," Velanz said with a cruel smile. "We'll try it your way, first. You do your tests and things, and you'll see that it is what I say." Once he'd apparently calmed down, the soldier let him go. "I'm surprised at you, Khushrenada. That creature just had two of her lackeys *kill* your men. I thought you cared for your men more than that." And with that, he turned and walked out the back door.   
  
As Treize turned to go to his own car, he caught a glimpse of Diana out of the corner of his eye, and saw cold calculation in her eyes.  
  
  
  
  
  
Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm working on the next section, the bad news is that I've run out of saved-up files, so it's going to be a couple of weeks until I get the next section out. Hope everyone's enjoying it! :)  
Marika  
  



	13. Part 12

Diana was treated with considerably more courtesy this time than she had been the last time she was a prisoner (meaning that she wasn't beaten or raped). She wondered, in a sort of disinterested way, whether that was because they were afraid of her (after what she'd done to the last men) or if it was because of orders.   
  
Diana really didn't like rapists. That particular conviction had come after she rescued a young woman from a rapist in one of the slums on Alpha, where the Alliance stuck it's enemies. Her opinion of them hadn't improved when she became the victim, either, so now her instinctive reaction was somewhat violent. She hadn't told Duo exactly what she'd done to the first rapist, because she didn't want to upset him. Now that she had some free time, she wondered if he'd survived or bled to death. His companions probably saved him. It wasn't as if you *couldn't* live without that particular body part.  
  
She'd tried, once, to pull her arms apart, and had confirmed her belief that Velanz had told them how to make decent restraints. After that one abortive attempt to free her hands, she made no move to escape. She had no interest in getting herself killed, and there were a half-dozen men with their weapons all trained on her. As always, she kept that possible avenue of escape in the back of her mind, but it would be some time before she'd turn to it. She'd survived over six months of being tortured by the Alliance last time, and this time her people should be able to find her faster. She hoped.   
  
Diana automatically pushed her doubts to the back of her mind. She was used to that... she was the Tiger, and she wasn't allowed to have doubts or second-guess the course of action she chose.   
  
So she just sat in the back of the truck with all of the soldiers holding their guns on her, and concentrated on a particularly pleasant memory from when she was fourteen, right after she'd turned Brian, Andrew, and Devin. She'd already captured Kane and Shin, but they were being stubborn. It had been a very emotionally intense time for her, first she captured Brian, then she'd barely managed to stop Shin from assassinating her father, then she'd had to show Brian the truth about the Alliance, then there was capturing and turning Andrew. Devin turned himself over on his own, but when they went to pick him up, Shin and Kane sprang a trap that she barely escaped from with her life.   
  
She'd quickly discovered that Devin was fiercely protective of Andrew, competent to handle just about everything having to do with soldiering, and nearly silent about everything else. He was even more quiet in most discussions than Brian, which was saying something. Andrew had suggested once that the difference between the two of them was that Devin didn't want to offer any opinions unless he was absolutely certain that he was correct, whereas Brian was willing to offer his opinions up to criticism.   
  
That was why she was so shocked when Devin actually sought her out and asked to speak to her. She'd been alone in her quarters on the Rebel base, looking over a propaganda page she was about to send out, so she'd just nodded and he closed the door to give them privacy.   
  
Devin simply stood there and stared at her for a long while. Diana was quite certain that she could wait him out if she wanted, but it had been a long day and she was fairly short-tempered, so instead of waiting, she said, "Look, if I want to play dominance games, I can go try to make Shin see sense. But you came to me, what did you want to talk about?"  
  
"I wanted to thank you."  
  
She blinked. "Thank me?" she repeated blankly.  
  
"He smiles here."  
  
There was no question who he was talking about, but that hadn't made things any more clear. Diana had blinked again, searching her photographic memory. As far as she could tell, Andrew had smiled once in the past twenty-four hours, four times in the last week, and a total of ten times in the three weeks since Devin had arrived. She searched for a more diplomatic phrase, then finally gave up and asked, "He smiles here?"  
  
"Our commanders never allowed him to smile at all. No unnecessary displays of emotion. It is... good, to see him smile. He never had cause to under our old masters."  
  
Diana felt the beginnings of a smile and stifled it before it could rise to her face as she brought herself out of the memory. She didn't know enough about her captors this time, she'd wait before she showed them anything, even something like a slight smile.  
  
Her eyes snapped open when she heard a voice - a *female* voice - barking orders with the same authority she expected from all of her own commanders. As she opened her eyes, the back of the truck she'd been transported in opened up and light flooded into the small chamber. By blinking her eyes rapidly, Diana was able to get her vision back long before any of the soldiers who guarded her, so she got a good look at the woman who was standing well clear of the door. She was dressed in some sort of strange red uniform, wearing glasses, of all things, and with light brown hair done in two buns low on her head.  
  
"Get her out of there," the woman commanded in a low voice, and the soldiers hurried to do just that. Diana noticed with some amusement that they all seemed to be quite... afraid... of the woman. A woman after her own heart. Of course, there didn't seem to be much affection or respect on the soldiers' side, which probably wasn't a good sign. It was good to establish a reputation as a very dangerous individual, but you didn't want your own troops to think that you'd ever turn on *them*. These soldiers were acting as if they expected her to snap someone's head off at any second.  
  
Diana obediently stood up and walked slowly out of the back of the truck, jumping easily to the ground and ignoring the dozen or so soldiers who had their guns pointed at her.   
  
Instead, she looked directly at the woman and asked in a cold voice, "Who are you?" Actually, it came out as more of a demand, which probably looked odd considering her position, but that was standard procedure for her. Do whatever they least expected, and switch patterns as often and as randomly as possible.   
  
The woman raised an eyebrow as she stared at her, then one of the corners of her lips curled up slightly. "Take her to the cell. I will speak with her later."  
  
Diana didn't even blink as two of the soldiers grabbed her upper arms although her mind was turning. She hadn't missed the fact that the woman had practically told her that she'd be coming back. Interesting.  
  
Even more interesting was the look of absolute hatred that Velanz had thrown at Treize when Treize stopped him from striking her a second time. Diana wasn't all that surprised that Treize had stopped him, given that he had been sorry about what happened to her the first time, but she had been surprised at how angry Velanz was. There was more to this than that single incident, and she resolved to find out what it was and use it to her advantage if it was possible.   
  
The drive that had carried her through the exchange had disappeared now, and she was back to what she considered normal, at least for her. She was glad. She hated herself when she got like that, but didn't have a choice in the matter. When she was like that, she had absolutely no instincts for self-preservation; or rather, she did, but they were always secondary to the mission. To hear Duo talk about it, that was like what Heero was like every day, but she thought that he was missing the point. If he'd really been trying to kill himself, he would have succeeded. Heero wasn't the type to fail at something like that. When she was like that... it would never occur to her to try to survive, so that she might be rescued later. If she'd managed to survive self-destructing a Gundam (which was probably, if Heero had managed it) in that state, she'd probably finish the job with a knife or something. She knew that she frightened Andrew when she was like that, and hated that as well, but again, there was nothing she could do about it.  
  
She mentally shrugged and pushed the matter out of her mind, concentrating on the future. She did intend to survive this experience, and there was no question in her mind that the others would come for her, and rather quickly, too. So all she had to do was survive.   
  
Diana frowned slightly. 'Just' surviving had never appealed to her before - if it had, she never would have joined the Rebels. Once again her mind traveled back to the look on Velanz's face as he was restrained by the soldiers. It had only lasted a fraction of a second, but she had caught it. She wondered whether Treize knew how much Velanz hated him. Either way, it could work to her advantage. If nothing else, if she could cause either of them difficulty...  
  
The soldiers shoved her into a darkened room and slammed the door behind her. Diana waited a few seconds for her eyes to adjust, then looked around. She could see, even from here, that the walls were much thicker than the ones in the first cell they'd kept her in, and there were slight ridges running up and down it that made her think they'd probably reinforced them with some sort of metal, as well. Oh, well, she'd just have to wait until they took her out of the room.   
  
She was confident they would - Velanz had promised to break her, and even if Treize didn't let him try, she was confident that he would want to talk to her. He was a very strange man, she reflected. It was becoming easier to keep the two of them separate in her mind - they were very different, both in appearance and manner, for which Diana was grateful. The thought of there being two Velanz's in the universe was very depressing.  
  
Diana sat down against the wall. The worst part about being a prisoner was the boredom. Diana's mind worked at a speed that some ancient computers couldn't, and she didn't like being without something to work on for any amount of time. She'd never told anyone, but boredom was it's own form of torture for her, with her mind demanding that she do something. She only slept for an hour or two a night, so that didn't help much, but she'd developed a few games to keep herself occupied.  
  
She closed her eyes as she brought up her current score for a game she'd been working on for eight years now, or so, on and off. She'd started during elementary school when she got bored and frustrated trying to figure out how normal humans functioned, trying to see if she could figure out every single possible combination that you could start with for a game of solitaire. There were quite a few of them, especially when you considered the cards below the top cards, the ones that would be turned over. She hadn't decided whether or not she was going to count possible combinations of the deck also, or just stick with the changes in the actual set-up.  
  
It didn't really matter, it was just a way to keep her mind busy.   
  
All right, I think I was still starting with the five of hearts...  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Their doubles were very quiet on the drive back to the safehouse, and Wufei wondered if it was because of the situation they were in, or because of his presence. Once or twice he caught their lips moving silently as they carried on silent conversations, so he assumed it was the latter. He felt bad about intruding on what was undoubtedly a very difficult situation and painful reminder of the past for them, but he'd had to see Treize when this was happening, had to see his expression when the exchange was made.  
  
What he had seen had told him quite a bit - Treize intensely disliked his own double, probably enough so that he would do his best to irritate and work against the other man as much as he could without actually breaking whatever pact they had made. That could be useful...  
  
As they pulled up in front of their current safehouse and climbed out of the vehicle, Andrew said to him, "Wufei, could I talk to you in private for a few minutes?"  
  
Wufei nodded agreement and followed Andrew into one of the rooms. It was the one he and Diana had been sharing, Wufei realized with a pang. Andrew turned to close the door behind them, and Wufei heard the distinctive sound of a lock clicking. He spun around to face Andrew, and came face-to-face with the barrel of a gun.  
  
Andrew stood there and stared at him for a couple of seconds, his head tilted slightly to one side as he examined Wufei's face, his expression never changing as he held the gun to his head. Wufei knew better than to move. He was good, but Andrew did have a gun at his head. What the hell did he think he was doing? Was Andrew some sort of traitor...  
  
"Why?"  
  
The question caught Wufei off-guard. "What?"  
  
"Why did you do it?"  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"Betray the Gundam pilots."  
  
Wufei blinked, and his mouth opened and closed once. Finally he got his mind to accept the statement that Andrew had just made, and his eyes narrowed to two dark slits. "What the hell are you talking about?!" he demanded hoarsely. "You, standing there with a gun pointed at me... and you call me a traitor? I would never..."  
  
"You're sleeping with them," Andrew cut him off coldly. "*Both* of them, too. That seems a bit excessive, don't you think? In my world sleeping with the head of the enemy forces and his right-hand man would be considered betrayal, yes."  
  
Wufei's eyes widened and the anger left him as quickly as it had appeared. "How..."  
  
"I'm an empath," Andrew reminded him, still expressionless. "You're lucky that Quatre never saw the three of you together, it's fairly obvious. There's a link connecting all of you... you vibrate together." He raised his chin slightly. "You never answered my question. Why?'  
  
"I have not betrayed anyone."  
  
"Then what do you call what you did?"  
  
"A personal matter."  
  
"It isn't personal when it's you and your enemies, no more than it would be if we found Shin sleeping with Velanz." A hint of disgust appeared on his face at that statement.  
  
"But Treize isn't like your Velanz. He is my enemy in battle, yes, but he is honorable."  
  
Andrew snorted. "Honor. What does that have to do with anything?"  
  
Wufei's eyes widened slightly at that statement, but he focused on the question itself. "It means that we are able to keep our work separate from our private lives."  
  
"You mean that you sleep together and it doesn't bother you that you're trying to kill each other during the day?" Andrew asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.  
  
"We haven't been ordered to kill Treize Khushrenada," Wufei said stiffly. "Nor Zechs Marquise, unless he interferes in one of our missions."  
  
"You're nitpicking," Andrew said. "Zechs has interfered several times, just not when you happened to be sleeping with him, and the only reason that the order hasn't been given out to assassinate Khushrenada is because the... scientists don't think that you could get near enough to him to do any good. What would you do if the order was given?" he asked, his eyes narrowing even further.  
  
Wufei knew that that was a distinct possibility, and it was something that he'd been trying to avoid thinking about. He raised his chin slightly. "I will deal with that on my own terms if the situation arises," he said slowly. "But I am no traitor."  
  
Andrew tilted his head to one side again, his expression considering. Then he suddenly slipped the gun back into the holster under his shoulder with one smooth motion and crossed his arms. "If you try to leave, I'll kill you," he stated simply. "Now I want to hear your side of the story."  
  
----------------------------------  
  
Andrew silently opened the door and allowed Wufei to leave his room, then sat down heavily on the bed. This was...  
  
He searched through his extensive vocabulary and failed to find a word adequate to describe what exactly this situation entailed.   
  
Why in the galaxy had Wufei wanted to come with them so much? If he hadn't, Andrew never would have seen the connection... Well, he knew the answer to that question. Wufei had noticed some things that most people wouldn't have about his lovers. Andrew had picked them up, because of his empathy, but Wufei had no way of knowing that would happen. His reasons were good, but the result... Andrew would have preferred not to know what was going on.  
  
He couldn't tell the others, there was no question of that. Devin, in particular, was especially sensitive to any hint of betrayal, after he found out what the Alliance had done to them. And they wouldn't have the reassurance of knowing that Wufei genuinely felt torn by what he was doing... he was very close to his lovers, but was very well aware of the fact that they were his enemies... it wasn't a position that Andrew would have put himself in for all the power in the galaxy, but it wasn't his choice.   
  
In any case, if he hadn't felt that, he probably would have killed Wufei himself.   
  
If he didn't realize the possible dangers and consequences of his actions, he was too irresponsible to be a Gundam pilot anyway, and if he didn't feel guilt about that, then his loyalties were in question. However, he was aware of both of these things, so Andrew let him live. The others would not be so generous.   
  
It was a very dangerous line that Wufei was treading, but he appeared to be managing it as well as it could be. If he wanted to keep doing it, it wasn't really Andrew's business, although he might tell Quatre or one of the others before they went home. Someone ought to know, and Quatre would probably not shoot Wufei. That wasn't what was bothering Andrew.  
  
Diana was exceedingly dangerous, probably much moreso than any of their enemies realized. His group was already making plans to rescue her, and it shouldn't be as impossible a task as it had been at home, but he knew that Diana wouldn't be relying on them to rescue her. If she saw an opportunity, she'd take it. And from what Andrew had seen, she'd be spending a fair amount of time with Treize Khushrenada, who was very different than his double. What better way to affect an escape that to create confusion by killing the head of the enemy organization?  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Diana kept her face carefully blank as she was escorted back to Treize Khushrenada's office, although she wondered how stupid they thought she was, by putting her back in the same base she'd escaped previously. Did they honestly think that she wouldn't know it was the same one just because they'd put her in a different corridor? She'd had the layout memorized before she escaped, and she'd had Andrew hack Oz's main computer to make get maps of all the bases before she traded herself for Shin.   
  
Khushrenada was looking through some files on his computer when she arrived, and Dev's double was standing behind him at attention, still wearing that stupid mask. Diana wondered idly why he wore it - what she could see of his face didn't appear to be scarred, and even if it had been, she doubted that he would let something that stupid bother him. At least, she knew that Dev wouldn't - on the other hand, this version of him was working for Velanz's double, so maybe it really was scarring.  
  
Velanz was standing in the corner with his own duo of guards, occasionally shooting murderous glances in Khushrenada's direction. Of course, the second that she arrived, he saved all of those looks for her, sticking in a sickly smile every now and then for variety.  
  
"What do you want?" she asked flatly when she arrived, not even bothering to glance in Velanz's direction. It was obvious he had little to no power here, no matter what he was deluding himself into thinking. In fact, if she was reading things right, he was a hair away from getting himself thrown in a cell with her. Now that was an interesting thought - it might be fun if they were thrown in together. She could play with him for a while, then kill him. It took so little to kill normal humans.  
  
"I thought we might continue our discussion, since it was interrupted before," he said smoothly.  
  
"Oh, you mean when I tore a hole through one of your walls, then hijacked several suits and escaped?" she asked coolly. "I apologize for inconveniencing you, by the way."  
  
"Not at all," he replied, a slight smile dancing around the corners of her lips. That slight non-expression irritated her greatly, for some reason. So he thought she was amusing? She could understand why he would feel that way - he had very little to lose here, and very little to gain, as well. He had to know that she wasn't going to tell him anything about the Gundam pilots, and he couldn't possibly care about what was going on in her world. So he could afford to play word games with her for as long as he wanted. That could be interesting. Maybe.   
  
"Would you please take a seat?" he asked, gesturing to the seat in front of her.   
  
She gave him a tight-lipped smile and seated herself with none of the grace she was capable of, well aware of the fact that this time, he hadn't dismissed the guards. At least he'd learned that much about her. "And why should I cooperate with you and play these games?" she inquired sharply. "They're irritating, and unlike before, you have nothing I want. The only thing of value to me that you possess is my freedom, and I very much doubt that you'll give me that in response for playing your games." She raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Quite correct, that is unacceptable," he replied, "however..." his gaze drifted to Velanz. "There are other things I possess that may be of interest to you."  
  
Diana also let her gaze slide to Velanz, and was quite pleased to see the fear in his eyes under his outraged exterior at Khushrenada's veiled suggestion. She made note of that fear before she turned her eyes back to Khushrenada. "I very much doubt that you would be willing to give him to me."  
  
"Not at the moment, no, but your time is at my disposal at the moment. Mr. Velanz seems quite insistent on getting answers out of you. For now, this is how I would choose to search for those answers. He will have his chance, of course, but if you were willing to 'play these games' as you said before, the amount of time you would spend with him would be greatly decreased."  
  
Diana studied him carefully. She didn't trust him at all, and didn't trust this offer of less torture for time spent talking to him. She was coming to understand that Khushrenada was much, much more intelligent than Velanz, and much more subtle as well. A dangerous combination. But it wasn't as if she was going to tell him anything about the Gundam pilots, and most of the information about her own world Velanz already knew. It was better than being tortured.  
  
She raised her head slightly, crossed her legs neatly, and sat up slightly, her face assuming an open and pleasant expression. "All right, then. I'm willing to play for that. Where do you want to start?"  
  
He looked openly pleased at her action, which bothered her a lot, but she'd never let him know that. "Why do you do that?" he asked.  
  
Diana tilted her head slightly, indicating her confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by that." Actually, she had a very good idea what he was asking, but hoped that she was guessing wrong.   
  
"Change like that. You do it quite often, change mannerisms, almost like you're switching from personality to personality."  
  
"I am. It usually confuses people."  
  
"And you like that?"  
  
"It gives me an advantage."  
  
"But what are your normal characteristics?"  
  
Diana really didn't like the way that this conversation was going - in just a few minutes Khushrenada had learned more about her (even if it was just the self that she projected to outsiders) than Velanz had in six months of holding her. She decided a little bit of misdirection was in order, and twisted her lips into a bitter smile. "Didn't Velanz tell you? I'm a weapon, an emotionless killer." She was satisfied by the hint of dismay that passed across his face before he recovered his composure.  
  
"I'm well aware of what Mr. Velanz thinks. I would like to know what you think."  
  
Diana's smile grew slightly larger, and she knew that it was not a pleasant expression. "With me, what you see it what you get," she said turning her head slightly to give him a profile before continuing. "I am every person that I've ever pretended to be. There is no real me," she lied.  
  
He regarded her with no little pity. "That must be very confusing for you."  
  
"I've grown used to it," she replied calmly, then waited for his next question. This was sort of entertaining.   
  
He also appeared to be waiting for something, and after several minutes asked, "Don't you have any questions?"  
  
Not that caught her off-guard. "I thought you were questioning me," she replied before she could think of saying anything else.   
  
"It wouldn't be very interesting if it was so one-sided, would it?" he replied with a slight smile, and she felt a stab of alarm. She always relied on people to give her the most information about themselves, usually by paying very close attention to their questions, to find out what interested them, and then working from there.   
  
She thought quickly, then asked, "Why are you so set on having this conversation with me? I haven't been on this world long enough to know anything of interest to you, and my knowledge of my world would do you no good."  
  
He shuffled through some of the papers on his desk for a few seconds before answering, and she could almost see him analyzing his choices in answering her. Well, that alone told her something.   
  
Finally he said, "There are very few people in this world like me. Zechs is one of them, the Gundam pilots are others. When we met earlier, you manipulated me. That has not happened in a long time. It is seldom that I meet someone who can play the game, and rarer still that the circumstances will permit it. In you, I have both."  
  
Great, so he's just doing this for fun. Despite her well-rooted common sense and all intentions to the contrary, Diana felt her interest stirring. She was in a similar position as he was, in her own world, with few that could keep up with her, and fewer still who wanted to bother with it. She knew that the boys humored her, but that none of them ever understood her fascination with pitting herself against the few people who could keep up with her - they'd had each other to keep busy when they were growing up and people who knew exactly what they were capable of, so they didn't know how incredibly frustrating it could be to always be around people who couldn't possibly keep up. She'd never quite gotten over that, and it was going to get her into real trouble someday.  
  
Like now. Diana was well aware of her more dangerous tendencies, and this one was right up there. And she couldn't forget that Velanz was there, watching her and obviously paying a lot of attention. He might not be as smart as her, but he wasn't an idiot, and if she let anything slip, he would pick up on it and use it against her.  
  
"All right, it's your turn again," she said carefully.   
  
He eyed her for a moment, then asked, "Why do you hate him so much?"  
  
"He killed my father," she responded simply, her voice calm. She was quite proud of that, actually, when the thing she wanted most was to rush across the room and break Velanz's neck, even as she thought about it. That was probably why he'd chosen to stand that far away - he knew that she was willing to die to kill him, and was giving the guards as much time as possible to shoot her if she tried.   
  
She caught the surprise on Khushrenada's face, and openly smirked. "I bet he didn't tell you that, did he?"  
  
Khushrenada regained his composure. "People die in wars."  
  
"That's right, they do, but it should be soldiers, not innocent civilians. Not women and children and whoever else happen to be in the way. If my father had been killed for his own actions, I would be angry. But he killed him simply to get at me, and that makes me... more angry," she finally finished, deciding that homicidal was probably a better word to describe how she felt, but probably not a good a idea to mention out loud. Throughout her entire speech, her voice hadn't risen above a low murmur, and she hadn't allowed emotion to color the words.   
  
Which was a mistake, she realized a couple of seconds later. That was nothing close to a normal human response. He would have expected her to be angry - she should have gone for what he expected, to satisfy some of his expectations might put him a little off-guard.   
  
She looked at him, and saw a thoughtful expression on his face as he glanced at Velanz. It was possible that he might not have noticed, but she wasn't willing to bet on it.  
  
"I think..." he said slowly, "that that is enough for today. I will speak with you again tomorrow." The way he said it made it an order.  
  
Diana smoothly got to her feet and inclined her head towards him in a gesture of respect, and saw a flash of surprise on his face. Good. She'd managed to surprise him again. But even as she started to walk out of the room, Diana worried. He'd gotten far too much out of her in a simple conversation. She'd gotten cocky, and lazy too. She had to stay on her guard until she got out of here, one way or another.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Surprisingly, Velanz offered no comments or complaints after Diana was escorted out. He simply nodded to them and followed her out, although Treize knew for a fact that he would not be able to get within twenty feet of her, by his own orders. But his behavior was puzzling.  
  
"He thinks he got something out of her," Zechs observed.   
  
Treize was about to correct him, when he realized that it was true. Velanz wouldn't have been that quiet unless he felt that he had gotten something out of that short exchange. Treize had only ended it so quickly because he had work to do, not because he thought that he'd actually gotten somewhere. He began to review the conversation in his mind, and immediately one thing caught his attention - her absolutely expressionless voice as she described the crimes Velanz had committed.  
  
He believed her, about what Velanz had done, and blamed himself for not picking up on it sooner. He'd known that Velanz was a killer, he'd just never thought about it in that way - that he would kill that easily, and those types of people.   
  
Treize was aware of the fact that many people considered him a monster, most of the Gundam pilots among those people, but there were some lengths to which he would not stoop. Lady Une had gone too far, and more and more he was finding that not only had Velanz done that before, it appeared that he did it on a regular basis. But that didn't explain what he was getting (or thought he was getting) out of this conversation.   
  
His mind once again returned to the dead look in her eyes when she talked about her father's death. No pain, no anger, just... emptiness. It was not a normal response, by any stretch of the imagination. It was also the only time she'd done that during the conversation.   
  
His mind suddenly made the connection. She only acts like that when it is something she cares about. That dead look - it's more like an overflow of emotion than a lack thereof.   
  
"She cared very deeply for her father," he said out loud, knowing that Zechs would be able to make the connection without him spelling it out for him. He had been honest before, about wanting to 'play the game' with someone who could keep up with him. Zechs was among those that could, but he was a subordinate, and his lover besides, which took all of the interest out of that competition. He assumed that she had the same problem, having not missed the flash of interest in her eyes when he explained himself.   
  
Zechs nodded slightly. "I still disturb her greatly," he commented.   
  
Treize nodded in response to the reminder. "I'll remember to ask her about that. It's possible that she knows your... double... from her own world. Did he ever mention anything about that?" There was no question as to who he was talking about.  
  
"No."  
  
"Find out if he knows anything."   
  
Treize only had to put up with the man a little longer, until he finished explaining the plans for spaceflight. His scientists had informed him that even though he'd kept a lot back, what he'd given them was almost enough for them to finish the work on his own. After that...   
  
He smiled slightly to himself.  
  
  
  
  
  
Sorry this section took so long, but RL has been absolutely crazy the last couple of weeks. I'm not quite sure about where I'm going with this, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. I am working on the next section of Prophecies - hopefully I'll get that out in a couple of weeks. :) 5/28/01  
  
  
Random notes: in my own mind (a rather scary place, I imagine), this is a crossover between a story I wrote some time ago detailing the story of Diana and the rest of her group and GW. I wrote the other story after watching GW, but it eventually veered so far away from anything vaguely resembling GW that I don't think it can even be called an AU fanfiction anymore. I had to change certain things in that story so that the two universes matched up better, (among other things the Treize character has a very small role in the other story, and is not the main bad guy) and I changed the names of most of the characters to help me keep the differences between my story and this one straight. If anyone's really interested in the original story, write me and I'll e-mail a copy to you. 


	14. Part 13

"What will it be today?" Diana asked in a weary tone, allowing a hint of irritation to creep into her voice. "Politics? Social values? Religion, or my lack thereof?" She took in the entire room in a glance. It hadn't changed since she was brought here yesterday. Even Treize looked almost exactly the same, in that same stupid boot-and-cape outfit that belonged centuries ago in a culture that was long-since dead. She was beginning to hate that outfit.   
  
The only major difference today was that, for the first time, Velanz was not also present. That immediately put Diana on guard, although she kept her expression mildly irritated for Treize's benefit. Today Zechs was also present. He had been at about half of their meetings, although for the most part he remained the silent observer.   
  
"No, I thought we'd discuss people today," Treize said as he poured her a glass of wine. There was already one sitting on his desk, and after he placed hers on the edge of his desk closest to her, he sipped from his own glass. Diana reached out with her manacled hands to grasp the fine crystal and sipped at it's contents. He'd only started giving her wine in the last few meetings, and she wasn't sure what, exactly, he was hoping to accomplish. She very much doubted that he was trying to get her drunk enough that she'd become indiscreet, and if that was the case, she could have told him that she could not get intoxicated. But he hadn't asked, so she just assumed that there was something deeper going on, even if it was just to make her uncomfortable.   
  
"Do you have anyone in particular in mind, or were you speaking in broad generalities?" she asked coolly, never taking her eyes off of him.  
  
"Actually I did have someone particular in mind," he admitted, bowing his head slightly to her.   
  
"Really?" she asked politely. "How... interesting," she commented, putting a slight sneer into the words while keeping her face blank.  
  
His eyes narrowed slightly, then he managed to calm them again. "I was wondering who do you think Zechs is?"   
  
Diana blinked once before she caught herself. She forced herself to smile slightly as she rapidly organized her thoughts. "He's your right-hand man, the top mobile suit pilot on your side of the war," she smirked for a moment before continuing, "...apparently no one knows who he really is under the bucket, and he's your lover," she finished finally, tilting her head slightly to see his reaction to the last comment.   
  
He decided to ignore her comment, though, so she was denied the possibly interesting sight of him getting angry with her. "All completely normal observations, I'm sure," he said, his eyes flicking up to look at her over the wineglass. "But not what I wanted to know. I want to know who is he to you. Or rather..." he paused for a moment, "Who his double is to you?"  
  
Diana kept the wince off her face as she heard his question. He was so damn quick it wasn't funny! She would hate to see what he could accomplish if he'd been engineered like her, or even just given a little push like the Gundam pilots. "An interesting question, and one you know I won't answer," she responded with a hint of rebuke in her voice.   
  
"That would be why Mr. Velanz is not with us today. He is not aware of this meeting, and whatever you say here will never travel to his ears."  
  
"And you honestly expect me to believe that?" she asked coolly.   
  
"Yes, actually."  
  
"Please give me credit for at least marginal intelligence," she retorted, setting down the wine glass.   
  
"Actually, I was giving you credit for much greater than average intelligence, to see that you could trust me in this."  
  
Diana gave him a searching stare to let him know what she thought about that, but inwardly she was considering his words, once she realized that he was actually serious. Should she give him the information that he wanted? It wasn't that crucial, after all, the Alliance already knew that he worked with her, already knew what he looked like, and it was doubtful that Velanz would be able to pick up anything too damaging from a second-hand conversation, if he ever did hear about it.   
  
No, now that she thought about it, Treize probably would keep his word. He didn't like his double any more than she liked hers. A lot less, actually, hers was closer to distaste while his was actual antagonism. He still needed Velanz, she'd gotten that much out of their discussions - Velanz was holding back crucial bits and pieces of the formulas that would allow Treize's people to build a faster-than-light drive. She'd considered offering it herself, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to hand it over to the enemies of the Gundam pilots.   
  
But Treize wasn't a bad man. Diana was getting very frustrated with the entire situation, and she badly wanted to kill someone, but didn't want to kill the wrong person and bring the wrath of the entire planet on her. And knowing her luck since she'd arrived in this world, that was exactly what would happen. Velanz was easy to hate, Treize wasn't. She'd half been hoping that further exposure to the man would prove her initial impression of him to be incorrect, that he was just better at hiding his true intentions then Velanz was, but that hadn't happened. As far as she could tell, he was a basically decent person with completely understandable goals, although she found some of his methods and the sacrifices he was willing to make completely unforgivable, she could see what would drive him to those lengths. He was at a serious disadvantage here, in that he didn't have complete control over his troops the way she did with hers, and there were several political groups mucking around trying to sabotage him. She only had to worry about one group.  
  
But the trap here was more subtle than that. He wouldn't betray her trust (such as it was), but if she admitted that she was wrong here, that he could be trusted at all, then she would be admitting that she had been incorrect in judging him. Yet not telling him was not an option at this point, it would be as good as admitting that she was a fool, especially when it was so obvious that he would not tell. He'd trapped her. What could she do to salvage the situation?  
  
Diana closed her eyes for several seconds, to get his attention, and then let a hint of chagrin to flicker over her face. Most people would miss it, but she was counting on him to be observant enough to catch it. With a quick glance at her guards to make sure that they didn't misinterpret the motion, she got to her feet. It was difficult to be graceful and poised when you were in a much-worse-for-wear pair of combat fatigues with your hands chained in front of you, but she managed.   
  
Once she was standing, Diana demurely lowered her head and performed an exquisitely graceful curtsey. She paused when she reached the bottom of the movement, and did not rise as she spoke, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. "You have my most profound apologies, Mr. Khushrenada. I misjudged you badly, and in doing so, questioned your trustworthiness, as well as your honor." she thought. She had no use for honor, although she could talk about it with the best of them. In her enemies... well, so few of them had any concept of honor, and for the few that did... she was as comfortable using that against them as any other flaw. The topic had never come up, but she had the distinct impression that Treize would not share her opinions in this matter. "Please accept my apologies," she finished, repeating herself and keeping her eyes trained on the floor.  
  
She might not be able to see him, but in this case, it was probably for the best. Her enhanced hearing caught the slight catch in his breath as she caught him by surprise, and she heard Zechs' s swift intake of breath. After a few seconds both men began breathing again, but she could tell by the rhythm that neither had quite recovered from the shock yet. Even more telling, Treize's heart was racing as he realized that even as she admitted that he had her trapped, she was attacking his confidence. What she was doing was patently ridiculous, but it was also something that people she'd known would have also thought was absolutely necessary. He had to know that she did not think so, which would confuse him more. That was the idea.  
  
Over a minute passed before Treize realized that she fully intended to stand there in that uncomfortable position until he accepted her apology or otherwise dismissed her. What she didn't tell him was that she could quite easily stay in this position for the next six hours with only the slightest strain on her muscles. She guessed that a human girl of comparable age and size would have been getting very uncomfortable already.   
  
"Of course your apology is accepted," Treize replied, forcing a hint of amusement into his voice. But she knew that he was forcing it there, trying to appear casual, and if she'd known that he couldn't see her expression, she would have smiled.   
  
She straightened up, smoothed out invisible creases in her pants (well, they weren't invisible, just so big and so numerous that it wasn't worth worrying about), and seated herself again. Her eyes fixed on Zechs for a long moment before she spoke.   
  
"He's my right hand man."  
  
To his credit, Treize recovered quickly and caught up. "*Your* right hand man?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.  
  
"You don't think that Velanz could possibly hold the loyalty of someone like him?" she asked, jerking her head towards Zechs. "At least, if he's anything like mine, he couldn't. He worked for the Alliance, briefly, but left because of what they were doing to my five. He made his way to the Rebels, and when I finally contacted them, I discovered him."  
  
"Discovered him?" Treize asked at the odd choice of words. He glanced once at his own version of Dev.   
  
"He was originally assigned to me because he had experience with creatures like me," she explained. "They didn't know what they had, and they thought that he was the only one who could possibly deal with me. They were probably right," she added with a slight shrug. "But the result was that I spent a lot of time of with him. Neither the Rebels or the Alliance had any idea what they had. Dev Carter is one of the most brilliant individuals I've ever met. He's a genius, about as close as a human can get to being one of us. He handles the infinite details and hassles involved with running our bases so that I can deal with other things."  
  
"Other things?"  
  
"Attack, defense, that sort of thing. The sort of thing I was designed for."  
  
"I see."  
  
Diana shifted slightly in her seat, relaxing all of the muscles in her legs, one at a time, to make sure that they didn't get too stiff. By their rules, it was her turn to ask a question now. She didn't like asking questions, she felt that that revealed too much about herself, but she could hardly tell him that without revealing even more.   
  
"When did you two first become lovers?" she asked. She actually was curious about this, if for no other reason than because she knew it would irritate them, and she wanted to see what that was like.  
  
Treize blinked. "You are exceedingly rude at times."  
  
She leaned back in her seat, slouching slightly. "Yeah, I know, it's what I fall back on when I get flustered." She grinned at them. "At least I waited to ask that until Velanz wasn't here. If he found out, he'd see it as a weakness and probably try to use it against you."  
  
"He'd see it as a weakness?"   
  
"Anything different or that is considered 'abnormal' is considered a weakness," she responded automatically. She'd spent enough time searching for such 'weaknesses' that it was second nature. "The Alliance doesn't have much tolerance for that sort of thing. Rumors about that sort of activity can be enough cause for dismissal." As she also well knew - she'd arranged to have several officers removed in just that fashion. "But it isn't my turn, it's yours."  
  
"My apologies." His eyes drifted closed for a minute, obviously dredging up old memories. Diana always found it interesting that most humans could not remember things buried deeply and function at the same time. "Our first time... was at the Academy. I was... twenty-one, I believe, visiting for some advanced classes, and, I must admit, I was curious about the boy who always wore a mask and who was crashing through every record that had ever been set at the Academy."  
  
"Mm," Diana responded, not bothering to push for anything more. She could see where this was headed - two people as intelligent and driven as they were would naturally be drawn together. In another life, if they'd met in conflict, they might have ended up as enemies, in this, they, well... she knew where that had come from. With two people like that, there was usually a lot of emotion involved, whether it was positive or negative depended mostly on the situation. "That's enough. I don't need you to draw a picture."   
  
His lips quirked in what might be called a smile. Maybe. "So there is a limit to your rudeness?"  
  
"Doubtful. I just choose what I want to expose myself to."  
  
  
==========  
  
  
Wufei finished the usual maintenance of his Gundam, pulled the camouflage tarp over the mobile suit, and headed back for the safehouse. Andrew, thankfully, hadn't said anything to him since the one confrontation, but as always, Wufei found his thoughts returning to what lay ahead.   
  
It had been one week since Diana was captured, and her people were almost ready with their preparations to rescue her. Under other conditions, Wufei might have felt sorry for the Oz troops at the bases (yes, bases) that they were going to hit. Under the present conditions, he could only marvel at their efficiency and ruthlessness. He'd done some terrorist work using only explosives, but like the others, he relied on his Gundam (probably too much) for most of his work. The others, having no Gundams, had turned terrorism into a finely tuned science, and one they were very good at.  
  
As soon as they'd returned from losing Diana, they started planning on how to get her back. They were not going to leave her in the hands of the enemy any longer than was absolutely necessary, but at the same time, they weren't going to mess up their first chance and give the enemy a chance to retaliate against her. They'd already started to sneak in and out of the bases, preparing explosives and planting them very carefully. They wanted to take out specific targets, but didn't want to chance hurting Diana. They also planted explosives at six different bases spread over about a hundred miles. Their aim was to cause confusion and to make sure that no mobile suits would be able to come in to support those at Treize's base. The hangers and underground launch bays were among the things that had been targeted.   
  
Wufei snorted to himself. Shin's comment on that had been, "Strike with maximum strength to cause maximum confusion." He was familiar with the concept, but even as a Gundam pilot he thought that they took it to extremes. They were likely to throw the entirety of Oz and the Alliance into confusion, for a couple of hours at least, until they realized that the attacks were more for show than anything else. By then, it would be too late.  
  
Hopefully. Wufei had been a Gundam pilot too long to ever assume that anything would go according to plan. And even if they did...  
  
No. He refused to think about that. He would not let it get in the way of what had to be done. With that thought firmly in mind, Wufei entered the safehouse. He hadn't gotten more than three steps in the door when Duo suddenly appeared in front of him. Wufei swore that Duo acted like that damned Gundam of his sometimes, appearing and disappearing out of thin air like some ghost.   
  
Wufei opened his mouth to snap something at the long-haired pilot, something on the order of, 'What the hell do you want, Maxwell?' but the expression on Duo's face stopped him. It was... hesitant? No, that wasn't exactly right, but somber, definitely, a marked change from his normal state. Instead, he asked, "What?"  
  
"Wufei, can I talk to you?" Duo asked quietly, with a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching them. The room was empty.  
  
Wufei, as shocked as anything by the sight of a quiet, reserved, Duo, nodded his head shortly and then followed Duo to the bedroom that he and Heero shared when they were here at the same time. He marched into the room and turned around as Duo quietly closed the door.  
  
"What's going on?" he asked immediately, startling Wufei.  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"You tell me," Duo said with a slight snort. "Ever since they got Diana, you've been on edge. Andrew too. Now I know that he had a long talk with you right after you got back here, so I'm guessing that that had something to do with it. Now what's going on?"  
  
"Why don't you ask Andrew?" Wufei suggested snidely, buying himself some time to think.  
  
"I did, he won't tell me anything." Duo sounded disgusted. "So what's going on?"  
  
Wufei was relieved that Andrew hadn't told him anything. He still had no idea what he was going to do if he was ever ordered to directly fight Treize or Zechs, and he knew that he did not want to have to explain this problem to Duo or any of the others. "Nothing."  
  
"Don't give me that crap, I know something's going on."  
  
"If there is, it does not concern you."  
  
"Does not concern me... bullshit! You've been distracted for days now, and sooner or later it's going to show up in your work, and that could be deadly for all of us! I think that definitely qualifies as concerning us! Now..."  
  
"I am dealing with it," Wufei interrupted him. "It is my business. It will not interfere with my performance."  
  
Duo actually bit his lip, Wufei saw the motion and it both did and didn't surprise him. It didn't surprise him because he would have thought that Duo wouldn't have the self control to be able to silence himself without a gesture like that. It did surprise him because he wouldn't have thought that Duo had enough tact to know when to stop pushing.  
  
After several seconds Duo said, "All right, Wu. If you say you've got it under control... then I believe you. But you do know that we're here, right? We may not be like them, but we still are a team."  
  
Wufei nodded. "I thank you for your... understanding," he finally said. "I will explain... soon. After the current situation is dealt with."  
  
"Thanks. Ok, now that I got that out, I guess I'd better let you go back to whatever it was you were going to do, meditating or something." He spun around, causing Wufei to duck slightly to avoid being hit in the face with several pounds of braid, and then left.   
  
Wufei stared after him for a minute, then went in search of Andrew.  
  
  
=========  
  
  
Andrew heard soft footsteps and looked up, one hand automatically going for the gun stashed in his waistband before he saw that it was Wufei. Well, that explained the itching at the back of his scalp that had been bothering him for the last twenty minutes. The Gundam pilots were so intense, he could practically feel it when one of them was focused on him, for whatever reason. Wait, practically? He could feel it. There were times that his power was useful, other times it was completely useless, worse than useless, to the point where he wished he could somehow rip it out of him. This was the first time that he could remember that it was just plain annoying.  
  
"You didn't tell him."  
  
No need to ask what Wufei was talking about. "I told you I wouldn't say anything, and I didn't. I don't lie to my friends."  
  
"Still." Wufei fell silent for a few moments, then offered, "I said I would tell him what was happening."  
  
Andrew stared at him, waiting for him to continue. After several minutes, his silence was rewarded.  
  
"I... am not happy. I made a promise, and I will keep it. But I am... relieved, slightly."  
  
"It's been weighing on your conscience." It was a simple statement of fact, and Andrew did his best to keep emotion out of his voice, but he must have let something slip because Wufei turned to stare at him.  
  
"Yes. This surprises you?" There was a hint of scorn in his voice.   
  
"No, not really. I was just confusing you with Shin, for a second."  
  
"Why should that make any difference?" Wufei asked, his brow furrowing slightly, his attention completely on Andrew now.  
  
"Because he would not have your problem. Of course, I don't know if he'd manage to get himself into that situation, either," Andrew added with a sigh. He still couldn't believe what was going on. He saw the blank expression on Wufei's face and elaborated. "We were trained not to feel things like that," he reminded the other man. "If he believed that what he was doing was not a danger to his comrades, then that would be the end of it. If it was a danger... well, he'd either immediately inform them of it so they could be on alert if it was still necessary to complete the action, or he would not do it in the first place. We weren't suppose to be able to feel that sort of discomfort."   
  
This was the problem he had with their doubles. His group had been raised together, knew just about everything there was to know about each other. They were used to it, and expected each other to know those things. Then they met their doubles, who were very much like them, but very different at the same time, and those expectations couldn't help but be transferred, with very different results. Things that every one of them took for granted and automatically assumed the others would know might never occur to their doubles, and it caused no end of confusion.   
  
"I see," Wufei said coldly, and Andrew sensed a flash of anger from him. It only took a moment's thought to figure out what he was angry about.  
  
"We already killed them. Everyone responsible for creating us is dead, except for Velanz. We'll get him soon," he added matter-of-factly. There was no denying that Velanz was quite brilliant, probably a genius in his own sick way, but he wasn't like them, and there were six of them.   
  
Wufei nodded to himself, showing no surprise that Andrew had known what he was thinking. "You don't wish any more like yourselves to be... created?"  
  
"We're not human, we're abominations," Andrew said, shaking his head. "If it was just the strength or the speed or the intelligence, it wouldn't be such an issue, but the did things in our heads besides making us smart. They fiddled with the connections between reason and emotion, and that's what makes us most dangerous. It's also what makes us least human. They shouldn't have done it, and although I have no intention of killing myself to erase the mistake, I can and will make sure that it doesn't happen again."  
  
Wufei tilted his head slightly, examining Andrew's face. "You are not an... evil person," he said finally.   
  
Andrew decided that this conversation had gone far enough. In a deliberate attempt to lighten the mood, he said with a slight laugh, "You have my apologies beforehand, but I'm afraid that a terrorist is hardly the best judge of who is good and evil in the world."  
  
Wufei's lips quirked in a slight smile. "If you want, I will drop the topic, but I spoke nothing less than the truth."  
  
  
=========  
  
  
Diana lay back on the low bunk with her hands above her head. She hated being captured. When she wasn't being tortured or recovering from being tortured, she was being bored out of her mind. One of her hands brushed against the metal that made up the frame of the bed, and her hand automatically closed around it. Here was a sign that her captors still didn't really understand what she was. When the Alliance had held her, they'd kept her in a room that held nothing except a number of cameras, a chain in the wall to attach her chains to, and herself. They gave her nothing that might possibly be used as a weapon. She could think of a half-dozen ways to use this bed (or pieces of it) as a weapon, not to mention just throwing it at anyone who got too close. She'd already ripped off a piece of the metal underneath, where no one would notice the damage. The piece had torn unevenly, leaving a very sharp and ragged edge. She'd pulled out a number of strands of her own hair, braided them together, and then tied the piece of metal to her thigh. She guessed that long hair was good for something, after all. She could kill herself with that piece of metal if she had to.  
  
Diana had been caught without a way to kill herself once before, and if things went bad, she did not intend to be caught in that position again.  
  
She blinked and released her grip on the bed when she heard the lock click a second before the door opened. She sat up as the woman she'd seen when they first brought her here walked through the door. As she observed the woman, Diana frowned. There was something wrong. The woman walking in was definitely the same woman, Diana saw a few scars and pock-marks that wouldn't be present on a twin of some sort, but still...   
  
Diana was a master of reading body language, and if she didn't know better, she would have thought that this was an entirely different person than the one she'd seen previously.   
  
The woman started, looking alarmed, and as far as Diana could tell, the emotion wasn't feigned. "You... you're just a child!" she exclaimed. Her voice was quite a bit higher than Diana remembered it, too.  
  
Diana got more confused, but decided to play along. "I haven't been a child in a very long time," she said quietly, matching the woman's tone.  
  
The woman looked a little dismayed, but didn't say anything else. After a few seconds Diana asked, "If you don't mind me asking, who are you?" There was something very, very, very odd going on here.  
  
"I'm Lady Une," the woman replied, and Diana blinked. She was fairly certain that Lady Une was the woman that Duo had cheerfully described as 'completely psychotic' and 'that bitch', who had almost finished off all of the Gundam pilots when she'd held the colonies themselves hostage against the pilots. That might describe the woman that Diana had seen when she was first brought here, but not this woman. Then there were all the rumors she'd heard from the guards about 'the Lady', and how you could never know what sort of mood she was in, but to watch out when she had her glasses on...  
  
Diana wasn't an idiot, and she immediately thought of one possible explanation for the woman's behavior. Her head told her that the conclusion she'd come to made sense, but she simply couldn't accept it.   
  
Turning her head and staring directly at the woman, she put on her most forbidding face and demanded in a cold voice, "I want to speak to Lady Une. Now!"   
  
The woman jumped back, one hand in front of her mouth, obviously more than a little startled and frightened by Diana's sudden change in attitude. Then she froze, her eyes going blank and Diana could practically see the lines of her face shift slightly, becoming harder, less forgiving, and Diana had her answer, even before Lady Une responded in a much lower voice. "I have some questions for you!"  
  
Diana stifled a moan and threw herself backwards onto the bed.   
  
  
  
First off, I want to apologize for letting so much time pass between the last post and this one. I am going to finish this story... eventually... but right now My Dads has most of my attention, which means it's probably going to be a very long time until the next part of this one comes out.  
  
That said, it was cool to come back to this story for a little while, it has a slightly different tone from most of the stuff that I've been working on lately, and it's a lot of fun writing Diana's frustration with this world and it's inhabitants.  
  
Marika :) 11/28/01 


	15. Part 14

"So we're set to go?" Quatre asked from where he was examining the layout of one of the bases that the Gundams were going to hit. The team from the other world had already placed explosives at 7 bases, including the one where Diana was being held. They were planning on setting them all off at about the same time, while the Gundams attacked four other bases. Shin and Kane were going to attack the base where Oz was pretending to be holding Diana, so they wouldn't realize their ruse had failed until it was too late. Andrew, Brian, and Devin would hit the base where she was being held.   
  
Quatre had been only peripherally involved in the setting of the explosives, and in the initial planning, although he had chosen the target bases, so as to do the Gundam pilots the most good, and to maximize the confusion it would cause. The others hadn't taken him at his word for the first two bases, insisting that he explain why the bases were best, and why exactly they should target them. After that, they'd just listened to him. There had been a certain satisfaction in that, when they admitted that he knew what he was talking about.  
  
Glancing up from where he was doing some last-minute checks of troop placements, he did a double take.   
  
Andrew currently had coal-black hair and dark brown skin, with eyes that matched. He looked completely different than Quatre had ever seen him. There was something foreign in his eyes, too, a look that made the hair on the back of his neck stick up. Quatre had the strangest feeling that he wasn't really looking at Andrew at all, but to someone else who by some incredible coincidence looked somewhat like Andrew and who had happened to get into their safehouse.   
  
Then Andrew blinked, and suddenly he was himself again, albeit with dark skin and hair. "Yeah, we're set to go. Shin and Kane left a half-hour ago, and we're leaving as soon as I change."  
  
"What are you dressed like that for?"  
  
"Last minute reconnaissance."  
  
"Like that?"  
  
Andrew shrugged. "I went down to a bar where some of the local troops were slumming and drugged someone's drink." He paused, then corrected himself. "Actually, I drugged a bunch of people's drinks. Anyway, there's no sign that they have any idea what we're planning."  
  
"Would regular soldiers know about that, anyway?" Quatre asked doubtfully.  
  
"Last guy I found was a general." Andrew's voice drifted from the next room.  
  
Quatre blinked, then decided that he didn't want to know what a general of Oz had been doing slumming.  
  
"Heero and Duo left hours ago, they should be in position soon. Same for Trowa and Wufei. I'm just letting them know that everything's a go, and then I'm heading out."  
  
"Got it," Andrew reported, coming out of the room dressed in a black jumpsuit. His face and hair were their normal colors again. He had a gun in one hand, and the clip to the gun in the other. As Quatre watched, he slid the clip home. "Lets go get her back."  
  
----------  
  
"Are you insane, or just really really stupid?" Diana demanded as she was brought into Treize's office.  
  
Treize settled back in his chair and allowed a small smile to appear on his face. This was new. He wasn't sure what that meant yet. It could be that this was just another one of her endless personality switches, or it could be something new altogether. It might be just his imagination, but he thought that she was actually being honest with him right now. Which led to another question: what had he done to get her like this?  
  
"And what, exactly, led you to this conclusion?" he asked, ignoring her question for the meantime. As always, he was keenly aware of Zechs standing at his side, and Velanz skulking about in one corner. He was very seriously beginning to think of giving the man to Diana. He was rapidly losing patience with him, and he'd suddenly become extremely reticent on the matter of spaceflight. Besides that, Treize just plain detested him, and the more he got to know about him, the more strongly he felt.  
  
"That woman."  
  
That woman? "I'm assuming that you're referring to Lady Une," he said calmly. That was the only woman he could think of. There weren't that many of them on his staff, and of them, the Lady was the only one he could think of who Diana would have seen.  
  
"The psycho with the buns and the glasses, yes. Her. Or maybe I should say, 'them'."  
  
"Them?" he asked, although he had a pretty good idea what she was talking about. More interesting than her observations about Lady Une was the fact that she really was well and truly angry right now. He allowed his smile to widen ever-so-slightly.  
  
"You can't possibly be that stupid," she muttered, slumping into the seat across the desk.   
  
"I'm happy you think so highly of me," he said blandly. She glanced at him, looking tired.   
  
"You are aware of the fact that she has Disassociative Identity Disorder," she said.   
  
"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that term."  
  
"Multiple personalities," she said sarcastically, and he mentally sighed. It looked like she'd gotten control of herself and was back to switching gears again. Sarcastic... that's probably the teenage kid, but it could be the old man... He'd taken to naming her various personalities by their characteristics, to help him keep them straight. Not that he knew if it would help him at all in dealing with her, but it never hurt to have more information. "You know, when a personal has multiple people running around in their head, most of which are not aware of each other?" She added that last one after a moment's pause. He wondered at it.  
  
"That's an interesting way of qualifying it."  
  
She gave him a dark look. "Don't change the subject. So, are you insane or stupid?" That came out in a light, lilting voice.  
  
"Neither, I trust. She does her job well."  
  
"She's legally insane! You're putting a lunatic in charge of half of your forces!"  
  
"This really bothers you, doesn't it?" Despite all of her mood-changes, she'd refused to allow herself to get sidetracked, leading him to believe that he hadn't lost the advantage totally yet.   
  
She blinked once, stared at him, then smiled. "You're very good, you know that? But not good enough, I think." She squirmed slightly in the chair. It looked like she was simply trying to get more comfortable, but he mistrusted that observation. It couldn't possibly be anything that simple.   
  
A second later the door to his office slid open and one of his aids ran in, panting, his eyes wide with alarm. "Your Excellency! The Gundams! They've attacked..."  
  
Diana suddenly lunged out of her chair, striking the soldier who stood to her left in the solar plexus with her manacled hands. He crumpled forward, all the breath rushing out of him, and she raised her hands, catching him under the chin with her fists. His head snapped back and he dropped like a rock. Diana somehow now had her hands on his gun, and fired off one shot at Velanz, who was the only one who'd begun to react to her attack. The shot caught him in the shoulder, spinning him around and making him drop his gun.   
  
While Treize had been distracted looking at Velanz, Diana had taken out the other guard and moved on to the aide. She kicked him once in the stomach. The man was lifted off his feet and tossed two meters across the room, where he hit the wall hard and slumped to the floor, unconscious.   
  
Treize turned his head back towards Diana, reaching for the gun under his desk, and found himself staring at the wrong end of the gun Diana held in her manacled hands. "Hands where I can see them," she instructed coolly.   
  
Stunned by the swift attack, Treize silently placed his hands on the top of the desk. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zechs tense.   
  
"And if you try anything, I'll shoot your boss," Diana continued, flicking her eyes towards Zechs once. "And if *you move*, Velanz, I will kill you," she threatened without looking at him at all.   
  
There was a slight smile dancing on the edge of her lips as she continued, "I believe your man was coming here to tell you that my people and the pilots have launched simultaneous attacks on a number of bases. Probably a dozen at least." Her smile widened into a definite smirk. "I *told* you that you didn't want to hold me."  
  
Treize finally got his mind back into working order after the suddenness of the attack. Dismissing his worry for his downed men to the back corner of his mind, he spoke carefully, not moving his hands from the surface of the desk. "And why are you so certain that's what's happening?"  
  
"Because it's what I'd do under the same circumstances," Diana said, her eyes slightly glazed over and her face expressionless. He had the feeling she wasn't entirely focusing on their conversation, but wasn't about to test that theory by going for his gun. "I need to be rescued, and you need to be taught a lesson about minding your own business." Her eyes cleared and she gave him that little smile again. "I think this is a fairly effective way of dealing with the issue." The smile disappeared again. "Now, take these things off," she said, nodding her head ever-so-slightly at the cuffs that were still on her wrists.  
  
Well, those were certainly effective at containing her. He took a deep breath. "No."   
  
She didn't blink. "No?" she asked, sounding more amused than surprised.   
  
"If you do, there's no more reason for you to keep us alive. I'd prefer not to die just yet," he explained reasonably, hoping he hadn't just signed his own death warrant.  
  
She looked at him for a second without speaking. "Reasonable. Unacceptable, but reasonable, assuming that I'm not willing to kill those of your men who are here, and still alive." She tilted her head to the side, then stepped to the side of the desk, and switched her aim to Zechs. "How good is your orthopedic surgery around here?" she asked in a conversational tone.   
  
"What?"  
  
"Medicine on my world is much more advanced than it is here - I'm proof enough of that. I'm wondering how good it is here. Is it good enough to, say, restore a shattered knee?" Her tone was still light, but there was nothing even vaguely friendly about her eyes. She shifted her aim down to Zechs' knee. "I think not. I think, that if I were to shoot out his kneecap, he'd never fly again. At least, not in a mobile suit."  
  
Treize felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. "You wouldn't."  
  
Her eyes were absolutely dead. "I would. I wouldn't be happy about it, but I *would* do it." She pulled back the hammer. "Now, take these things off me, or I see to it that Oz's star pilot never flies again."  
  
That would destroy Zechs. He had given up his birthright and abandoned his father's principles in order to fight against the forces that had killed his family. To have that taken away from him... he'd have nothing left. It would destroy him. And Treize couldn't let that happen. And Diana knew that. She's using what she knows about me against us, he realized with a growing anger. And there was nothing he could do about it.  
  
Very, very slowly he opened the drawer to his desk, and pulled out the metallic strip that would open her cuffs.   
  
"Sir..." Zechs said stiffly.   
  
"Shut up," Diana said absently. She shifted slightly to allow him better access without moving the gun at all. He slid the strip through the key-hole, and the cuffs immediately unlocked and started to fall. Diana caught them easily with one hand - the one not holding the gun. "All right, sit down again," she instructed. "You, put these on." She held out the cuffs to Zechs.   
  
"What?"  
  
"The pilots have a healthy respect for you and your abilities. I'm not taking any chances. Put them on."  
  
Zechs silently obeyed, and Diana pocketed the key. Then she stretched out her arms, rotating her free hand. Then she moved the gun to her other hand and stretched the first one. "All right, lets go."  
  
"What?"  
  
"We're leaving. Come on." She jerked her head in the direction of the door.  
  
"You're expecting us to just walk with you and allow you to kidnap us?" he asked disbelievingly.  
  
"In a word, yes." She glanced between them. "You think that I can't knock you unconscious and then carry all three of you wherever I want to?"  
  
"All three of us?" Treize asked. To be honest, he hadn't thought of that possibility, but now he wasn't ruling it out, not after what he'd seen her do.   
"You don't think I'd let Velanz go after I finally got my hands on him?" she asked with a growl, then, "And stop stalling. Are you going to walk or am I dragging you?"  
Treize exchanged a glance with Zechs. If they were still conscious, there was a chance that they'd be able to use that to their advantage and escape. It was hard to run if you were unconscious. Zechs dipped his head ever-so-slightly, indicating his agreement. Treize stepped out from behind his desk. "Lead the way."  
  
---------  
  
Andrew pulled the zip-ties firmly around the downed mechanic's wrists with one hand, keeping the other one - the one with the gun - available for use. He glanced around the hanger they'd chosen as their entry point. Devin was finishing tying up the rest of the men they hadn't killed, and Brian was checking the room to make sure they hadn't missed anyone. Andrew heard a startled shout, followed by the unmistakable sound of a silenced gun going off. His eyes flickered closed for a moment, regretting all of these pointless deaths, but he refused to let his feelings... his weakness... interfere with the mission.   
  
A minute later, Brian returned. "Clear," he reported.   
  
"Cells first," Andrew said. They'd established before that they'd check the cells first, hoping that they'd get lucky and find Diana right away. If they didn't... well, then they'd just tear the place apart until they did find her.  
  
Or maybe she'll find us first, he thought, turning his head as he heard gunfire. Quatre's attack hadn't come very close to the base yet, and all of his team was here. That meant either there was another enemy on base, the soldiers were panicking, or Diana had already gotten loose and was wreaking havoc. He was willing to bet on it being the last.  
  
He gave a silent jerk of his head, and Brian and Devin moved to cover the door from two different angles. Andrew moved to stand right next to the door, so that he could ambush anyone who came through. He pressed himself against the wall and waited. After a minute he heard a voice that made his breath catch in his throat. Diana.  
  
She sounded irritated, but there was no strain in her voice to indicate that she was in any immediate danger or injured. "All right, turn left here," she said to someone else. "Into the hanger." Andrew heard two... no, three sets of footsteps. So she had prisoners. That was a little odd, they rarely bothered. So either she really had no idea where she was, which didn't sound right, especially considering what he'd overheard, or... or she had prisoners that were worth the trouble of dragging around.  
  
He could only think of a dozen or so possibilities, on this world, and they were all guaranteed to cause trouble, some more than others.   
  
The door next to him slid open, and Treize Khushrenada stepped through, hands held up in surrender.   
  
Shit.  
  
----------  
  
Treize felt, rather than heard, someone waiting on the other side of the door to the hanger. He wasn't sure whether to hope it was on of his men or not. This might be the last chance they had at recapturing her, or at least for him and Zechs to escape. On the other hand, he didn't really think that any of his men could stop her, not after what he'd seen her accomplish already, and wasn't anxious to waste more lives.   
  
His concern was proved unnecessary when he did step through the door, and caught a glimpse of a very pale face out of the corner of his eye. He hesitated for a second, turning his head to look at the boy. 04's double.   
  
The 'boy' stared back at him without a trace of expression on his face. His eyes were hard and uncompromising, and immediately fixed on Treize's face. Treize suddenly realized that he was identical to the man who'd spent several years torturing this boy, if Diana's version of events was at all accurate.   
  
"Keep moving," Diana instructed from behind him, and he took several steps forward, allowing Zechs, Diana, and the unconscious Velanz to enter the hanger. His motion brought him far enough into the hanger to see the bodies of mechanics lying all over the place, some with their hands tied behind them, others unbound, but very still, or lying in pools of their own blood. He looked around, committing the image to memory.  
  
Six more dead because of me. He'd have to find out their names later, assuming, of course, that he survived this.   
  
"Tiger..." said another voice, and Treize saw two more albinos appear from hiding, one from behind a mobile suit, the other from a pile of spare parts. They both froze for a second when they saw her, with Velanz slung over her shoulder. "You caught him!" the one on the left said.   
  
Diana gave a short nod as she handed Velanz off to the first of the two to arrive. "I assume you have a plan for getting us out of here?"  
  
The first, occupied with examining his new prisoner, didn't respond, but the second nodded shortly, then flashed her shy smile. "Have to adjust for prisoners, but it shouldn't take long," he reported. "Two minutes." Diana nodded, and he turned and darted off to the nearest mobile suit, which he scaled using nothing but his hands and feet.  
  
Treize nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice spoke from the general vicinity of his head. He was so startled that he actually missed what the person had said. He swallowed, trying to compose himself. "Excuse me?" he asked, his voice coming out calmly.  
  
"Hands behind your back, sir," repeated 04's double. Diana's head suddenly snapped around, and she stared at the boy.  
  
Treize felt hands on his upper arms, and decided that the 'boy' could probably force him to obey if he wanted, so he crossed his wrists behind his back. He felt something slip over his hands, then that something tightened around his wrists.   
  
"Who's the one with the mask?" asked the first boy, who'd slung Velanz over his shoulder and walking over to examine Zechs, who remained silent.  
  
"Later," said the boy who'd climbed up the mobile suit. "We're ready."  
  
Treize glanced at Diana just in time to see the tail end of some sort of communication between her and 04's double. Whatever she'd said, he shook his head slightly, and her lips tightened in annoyance.   
  
"Fine," she said, turning away from 04's double. "Let's get moving."  
  
"Sorry about this," said a polite voice from behind him, and Treize felt a sudden pressure near the junction of his neck and shoulder. Everything went black.  
  
----------  
  
Escaping from the base was relatively easy, relatively being the key word. Things were going pretty smoothly until they got cornered by a lone mobile suit towards the edge of the base's territory. Apparently someone had finally noticed them carrying the leader of Oz and one of his top men off the base. Luckily, Devin and Brian had been doing some research on how to deal with mobile suits. While Diana and Andrew scattered with their hostages (Brian dropped Velanz in the dirt, and no one cared much whether or not he survived the encounter), the other two boys ran straight at the mobile suit.   
  
Brian slammed into it at full speed, taking most of the impact on his shoulder. Diana winced mentally. Just because their bodies could take that kind of stress didn't make it a good idea, or any less painful. The mobile suit staggered slightly. Even one of them couldn't just knock a mobile suit over, but an impact delivered at that speed could do some damage to the inner workings of the leg.   
  
While the pilot was trying to recover his stability, both with the mobile suit and with his own mental well-being after seeing a boy do that to the suit by running into it, Devin started hauling himself up the side of the suit, moving as quickly as he could. In seconds he reached the suit's right arm, the one which held the huge energy gun. He reached into the elbow joint and started ripping stuff out. After a few seconds, electricity began to spark from the joint, and he jumped clear. A few seconds after that, there was a minor explosion in the join, and the arm swung down, pointing the gun at the ground.   
  
Once the major threat was dealt with, Devin and Brian ran at the suit again, this time slamming into both of it's 'ankles' at the same time. That impact actually knocked the suit over, and it fell with a huge thud that echoed in Diana's ears. "Run!" Devin shouted, and they took off into the woods, Brian snagging Velanz's wrist on his way and dragging him along. By the time the suit was upright again, they were well hidden in the woods.   
  
Her men had hidden a jeep a few dozen miles away, and they were back at the safe house by that evening. Treize and Zechs were locked in a spare room that had been thoroughly searched and prepared by Andrew, and Velanz was chained to a bed in another room. Then Kane and Shin got home, and they held a minor celebration at her safe return. Not long after that, the Gundam pilots returned, and wanted to be briefed on what had happened.  
  
Diana saw Andrew pull Wufei into one of the bedrooms almost the second he got home. She didn't like being in the dark about anything, and had the growing suspicion that whatever he was hiding from her was extremely important.  
  
She'd first noticed that something was wrong when she handed Treize over to him. He'd called the older man 'sir'. Andrew almost never called anyone 'sir', unless he was playing a part that required it. He and the others had all been required to call everyone around them 'sir' when they were being trained, and he, in particular, had chosen to discard that mannerism when she freed them. About the only people he did call 'sir' were herself, when he was in mission mode, and Dev, under similar circumstances. For him to call Velanz's double that...  
  
She could think of any number of reasons he'd do that, the problem was, she didn't like the implications of any of them. And she was sure that she was missing something.  
  
When Wufei came out, his expression was the same as it always was, mildly haughty and angry, but she thought she detected a hint of pallor under his skin tone, and his heart was beating faster than normal. Enough is enough, she decided, and grabbed Andrew by the arm, hauling him back into the bedroom that he'd just vacated.  
  
"All right," she said, keeping her voice low. "What is going on?"  
  
"We have a potential problem. No one expected that you'd catch such high-level officers," he said, matching her volume.  
  
"Fine. So?" They'd dealt with unexpected windfall before.  
  
"They're not like the enemy on our world."  
  
Diana knew exactly what he meant. For most of the Alliance officers on her world - about 90% of them, actually - she would have no difficulties walking up to one of them and pulling the trigger. It was hard to raise to any rank in the Alliance while maintaining anything resembling morals or a value for human life. Apparently it was not the same here. Diana knew that she would have difficulty pulling the trigger were it Treize or one of his men at the other end of the gun. Oh, she would do it, if given a good enough reason, but she wouldn't be happy about it.  
  
It had been a difficult thing, threatening them with torture. The truth was that they'd never tortured her, nor allowed others to do so, and she tried to hold herself to a higher standard than those she fought against. It wasn't often that she found herself on the other side of the scale. She'd been relieved when they'd acceded to her demands. She wouldn't have liked doing that to Dev's double.  
  
"You're right, they aren't," she said, then realized that she'd allowed herself to be momentarily sidetracked. "But that isn't the problem. Either we kill them, or we don't. That is not the problem. What is the problem?" she growled.  
  
Andrew opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then sighed. "Wufei is involved with both of them," he finally said.  
  
Diana stared at him, desperately searching for some meaning to what he'd said that made some sort of sense. She failed.  
  
"Please... please tell me that you mean something other than what I think you mean," she asked pleadingly.  
  
He just stared at her.  
  
Diana closed her eyes and resisted the urge to throttle someone. It's this world. That's got to be it. Everyone on this world is involved in a conspiracy to drive me insane!  
Tada! Bet you thought I was gone forever! Sorry about the long break, but I decided that taking two unrelated languages wasn't challenging enough, I should take them both at the same time! I am working on this story and thinking about a sequel to My Dads, but no promises on when they'll come out.  
  
Diana isn't really serious about that last comment. Well, she did think about it, for a second, but that's her job. I've always been interested in the idea of Wufei being with Treize and/or Zechs during the war, in terms of what it would do to his sense of loyalty, but the issue isn't dealt with that often (at least, not that I've seen). So I'm going to play with that a while. Fun fun fun. Hope everyone is enjoying this. 


	16. Part 15

Treize's head felt awful. Truly terrible. The last time he'd felt this bad was when he'd overindulged after graduating from the Academy, and he'd sworn then that he'd never do that again. And he hadn't. At least, not until now. The throbbing in his head seemed to be telling him a different story.  
He cracked open one eye and winced, immediately closing it again. Damn it, what in the world had he done last night? He was having trouble remembering. Shielding his eyes with one hand, he risked a quick glance again. His eyes focused on a familiar figure resting inches away from him. _Zechs._ He was lying in a bed next to Zechs. Well, that wasn't so unusual. What was unusual was that Zechs was fully clothed. Come to think of it, he was fully clothed as well. He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back to the bed. What had he done?  
"There's a tablet on the table next to you," said a quiet voice. "It will help with the headache."  
Treize's eyes snapped open and he sat upright, ignoring the pain that stabbed through his head. Diana was sitting on a chair a few feet away, watching him. "You!"  
He looked around, and was unsurprised to discover that they were in unfamiliar settings. This looked like a bedroom in any normal house, with a double bed, a chair, a couple of dressers... completely routine except that there were no windows and the only way in or out appeared to be the one door a few feet from where Diana sat. Trieze doubted that the placement was coincidental.  
"Yes, me," she replied evenly. "The pill will help with the pain," she repeated slowly, as he turned to check Zechs. "He's fine, we just had to give him a slightly larger dose of sedative to keep him out, he's got a very active metabolism. He should be awake any minute now."  
Zech's pulse was strong, and his breathing was unlabored. He also was without his mask.  
"We threw it out," Diana said, seemingly in response to his thoughts. "It's stupid and was pissing Kane off."  
"Kane?"  
"Pilot 02's double," she clarified.  
"I see." Treize shifted again and hid a wince as the slight motion once again made pain stab through his head. He eyed pill on the table beside him.  
"It's not poisoned or drugged. If we wanted you dead, we wouldn't bother with poisons, and if we wanted information, we'd just drug you with a needle. It's just for your headache," she said, sounding vaguely irritated.  
He considered her words, then picked it up and placed it on his tongue, where it immediately began to dissolve. He waited patiently. Less than a minute after it finished dissolving, the pain in his head began to noticeably diminish. He blinked in surprise. _It can't be the medicine...  
_ "Told you our medicine was better than yours," she told him. That was when he noticed that she hadn't taken her eyes off him once since he'd woken up.  
"I don't think you need to be excessively cautious," he told her. "I'm not going to try to escape." At least, not while she was standing there.  
She didn't respond, continuing to stare at him. After a long moment, she sighed and finally looked away. "I suppose I can see the attraction."  
Alarm bells, totally unrelated to the throbbing in his head, suddenly went off. She knew something that he didn't, something extremely vital, and he had to figure out what it was.  
He was momentarily distracted when Zechs moaned beside him and rolled over. Zechs suddenly went still, and Treize knew that he was awake, and listening to find out more of his situation before letting anyone know that he was alert.  
At least, that was what he would be doing in theory. The actual application didn't seem to be working so well. Diana glanced at him and said, "There's another pill for him, if he wants it. You might as well get up," she added conversationally. "I know you're awake. I can hear your heartbeats."  
Zechs sighed and opened his eyes, then winced slightly. Treize looked around and saw a second pill lying on the table on the other side of the bed. He reached over and handed it to Zechs. "Put it in your mouth," he instructed.  
Zechs raised one eyebrow, presumably at Treize's apparent trust of Diana, but did as he was told.  
Treize cautiously tested his head by tilting it to one side. When that didn't set off any more pain, he sat up, automatically straightening his clothes. At least now he and Diana were on the same level, physically. "What are you planning to do with us?" he asked quietly.  
Diana tilted her head slightly to the side. "We don't know yet. Some... issues have been brought to light that we weren't previously aware of."  
Once again Treize felt that vague feeling of alarm, the sense that she knew something that he didn't. "I don't suppose you'd care to share them with me," he asked, not really expecting her to give him any sort of answer. He was her prisoner, after all.  
"I have a feeling that you'll find out soon enough, when Wufei finishes his discussion with his comrades."  
She'd said it so casually that at first the import of her words completely missed him. Then he felt Zechs stiffen beside him, and focused on her actual words. _As soon as Wufei..._ He stared at her, and although he saw nothing in her blank eyes, that was an answer in itself. _She knows.  
_ If she knew, chances were the rest of her people did, too. And the pilots? If they didn't know already, they would know soon enough, if what he was reading into her comment about that 'discussion' was accurate. And then... he knew already that they were all willing to kill for their cause, to die for it... how could they view what Wufei and done as anything but betrayal? What would they do with him?  
All these thoughts passed through Treize's mind in an instant. Then he remembered where he was, took a deep breath, and composed himself. "How did you find out?" he asked quietly.  
"Andrew saw you, when Kane and I switched," she responded, surprising him with her willingness to share information. It was so uncharacteristic of her that he even found it threatening. Of course, it could just be that she was feeling overconfident now that she had escaped, but having seen how careful she was in the past, he doubted it was as simple as that. "As soon as he saw the three of you together, he knew. He says, and I quote, 'They practically vibrate together,' unquote, although that brings to mind some imagery that I really could have lived without," she said, her eyes distant.  
Then she closed her eyes and shook her head, as if trying to dispel an unpleasant image. When she opened them, her eyes came to rest directly on Zechs, and she frowned slightly. "Maybe we should have left the stupid helmet," she muttered, looking away from him. "It'd make it easier to remember, at least."  
Before he could ask her – or figure out on his own – what she was talking about, she continued, "So why did you wear it, anyway?"  
"Wear what?" Zechs seemed to still be a little woozy from the drugs. That, or he was playing stupid. There was no way he would have asked that question otherwise.  
"Big. Metal. Can," Diana ground out. "You know, the thing that usually covers most of your head?"  
Zechs glared at her. Treize had seen many very strong individuals cowed by much less, but Diana just gazed back at him. "It's a private matter," he said, not backing down at all.  
"Too bad. I want to know. You're my prisoner. That means I get answers."  
"I'm hiding my identity," he said stonily, answering her question without really telling her anything.  
"Very good," Diana said dryly. "That's very helpful." Now _that_ had a definite sarcastic tinge. "Why?" Zechs didn't answer, and Diana took a step towards the bed – not really getting any closer to Zechs, more like she was circling him.   
_Like a predator circling their prey._ Treize immediately wished that image hadn't come to mind.  
"You're not a criminal," Diana said slowly, never taking her eyes. "I know the type. And you're not a rebel either, obviously. Had that can on since school, so it wasn't something you did... Your parents?"  
Treize was keeping a quiet eye on Zechs, searching for any clues that he might be giving Diana, but even he didn't see anything when she asked the question. If he couldn't, there was a chance that she hadn't see anything either.  
Whatever she saw or didn't see, Diana stared at Zechs for a few more seconds before nodding slightly, as if in satisfaction. Then she suddenly turned her head towards the wall, her eyes gone slightly vacant. "Ahh, and there we go," she muttered uninformatively.  
"What? What's happening?" Treize asked, recognizing by now the signs that she was reacting to something that he couldn't hear.  
"You'll see," was her maddening response, then she fell silent for several minutes. Then, without warning, she stood up and opened the only door in the room. Pilot 02's double... Kane, was standing on the other side.  
"They want to talk to you," he said, jerking his head towards the right. "I'm here to take over." He glanced at Treize and flashed him a truly wicked grin.  
"Behave yourself. They're not their doubles," Diana told him firmly.  
"I know." Kane's eyes didn't leave Treize's face.  
"Kane..." Diana drew out his name in a warning tone. "I mean it. They're different."  
"Shin still came back with a couple of holes in his legs," Kane replied all too calmly.  
"That was Velanz, as always," Diana snapped. "Now behave yourself. If I find out you've been messing around, I'll put you on cleanup duty indefinitely."  
Kane grimaced and stiffened, then threw a perfect salute. "Yes sir, Tiger sir."  
Treize saw Diana flinch, then she raised a hand to rub at her temples. "I'm sorry, Kane. I shouldn't have done that. Just... behave?"  
Kane stared at her for another second, then grinned. "No problem, Tiger. I'll make sure they're still in one piece when I'm done with them."  
Diana left off rubbing her temples to glare at him. "You know very well that isn't what I meant."  
"Yup, I do," Kane said with a grin. Then he actually slapped his superior officer on the rear. "Now you'd better get going, or they'll begin to suspect the truth about us!" He fluttered his eyes at her.  
Diana, obviously used to this behavior, only rolled her eyes and stepped through the door, leaving them alone with Kane. He quietly shut the door, then smiled again. It was not a pleasant expression. "You guys are in deep," he told them, rather gleefully.  
"We were aware of that," Treize told him. "You are Kane?" he asked, not really needing verification, but feeling that keeping the boy talking – as opposed to removing body parts – might be a good idea.  
"So you've heard of me," Kane said, sitting in the chair and propping his feet up on the bed. He tilted the chair back so that it rested on only two legs and clasped his hands behind his head. "So what shall we talk about, buckos?"

---------  
  
Diana composed herself as she walked down the hall to the room where the pilots were meeting, but she couldn't help but glance at the room where they'd stashed Velanz. When she'd brought him back, they'd given him just enough medical attention that he wouldn't die prematurely, no more. They were going to kill him, it was just a matter of when.  
There wasn't really any good reason to keep him alive. He didn't have any information they particularly needed, and it would do their cause a lot of good to just kill him and be done with it. But Diana didn't want to 'just' kill him. She knew it was wrong, she knew she should just do what needed to be done, but she wanted to hurt him before he died. He'd killed her father, tortured her, nearly destroyed her closest friends... She could very easily picture herself torturing him to death... and enjoying it. The thought terrified her.  
With an effort, she tore her eyes away from the door, trying to focus on the task at hand. They wouldn't have called for her unless they were unable to come to a decision on their own, and she'd heard raised voices through the walls during her conversation with Treize and Zechs. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they'd been arguing about.  
She automatically composed her face as she entered the room, glancing discreetly around to get a feel for how she should approach this. Wufei was standing at one end of the room, near but separate from the other pilots. They were watching him warily, but were standing in more or less a line. Well, at least they hadn't made up their minds already. They weren't gathered in a circle, excluding him. Her four were standing around near the door. Everyone looked at her as she entered.  
"Yes?" she asked.  
"They want your input," Andrew said in a low voice.  
"On what?" Diana didn't really need to ask that – she'd heard the discussions they'd been having all morning, long before Treize and Zechs woke up. The pilots' initial response to finding out that there was something between Wufei and the other two had been predictable, and Diana supposed that she should consider herself lucky that shots hadn't actually been fired. Andrew (with Devin and Brian backing him up) had managed to keep them from killing Wufei long enough for him to speak, supporting the pilot and saying that he didn't think he'd turned traitor.  
After that, they'd grilled Wufei on almost every aspect of his relationship, often in quite embarrassing detail, before starting in on his loyalties and intentions. Diana found it very interesting that Heero alone among the pilots hadn't participated in the discussion. She flicked her eyes towards him, then glanced at Andrew. He turned his back towards the pilots so they couldn't see his lips, and mouthed, _"I think that he knew."_  
_That_ was interesting, if it was true. It could make her job a lot easier.  
Assuming, of course, that she _wanted_ them to go easy on Wufei, and, by extension, Treize and Zechs.  
Diana sighed. Who was she kidding? Certainly none of her people, and probably not the pilots either. She might not agree with Treize, and she'd certainly help fight against him, but she did – God help her – like him.  
"The situation. We want your opinion," Quatre said simply. "We know it's just your opinion, and that you aren't perfect," he added quickly. "And we can take all of those factors into account. But we still want it."  
"Want it on what? Please be specific," Diana requested.  
"Do you think it's possible for Wufei to have a relationship with the enemy without it compromising his loyalty? Our mission?" Quatre said immediately.  
Diana rapidly composed her thoughts. "You realize you're speaking to someone who's spent most of her life in one form of deceit or another. Yes, I do think it's possible to have interests unrelated – or even opposed to – your goals and have them not interfere. It's not easy. Most people cannot do it, but Andrew has told me that Wufei can and has done it, and I trust him in this." She paused for a second, there was no way they'd like hearing this, "Furthermore, from what I've observed of Treize, I don't think he would use his relationship in order to try to force Wufei into betraying you. I don't think it would appeal to his sense of," her brow wrinkled slightly in disgust, "honor."  
She fell silent for a long moment, studying Heero carefully, both with her eyes and ears. He nodded his head, ever so slightly, when she said that Wufei could do it, and she decided to take a gamble. "But there's someone I don't think you've heard from, whose opinion should matter more than mine. Heero? I don't think you've said anything while they were debating. Why is that?"  
His perpetual frown deepened slightly for a second, and she knew that she'd guessed right. "I knew," he finally muttered.  
Wufei's head snapped up as they other pilots spun around to stare at him. "You knew?" Duo asked, his tone both accusatory and slightly hurt. "You knew and you didn't tell us?"  
"Hai."  
"How?" Wufei asked, swallowing.  
"I noticed that you sometimes took an extra day or two to go or come from a mission, but you weren't accounting for the time. I followed you," Heero said, his tone unrepentant.  
"I would have thought you'd kill him," Diana remarked. Everything she'd seen of Heero said to her that he was a 'shoot first, question the corpse' sort of person. For him to show mercy, or clemency, towards a perceived traitor seemed out of character.  
"I considered it," he said matter-of-factly, and Wufei paled slightly. "However, it was just after I... after Duo and I..." he swallowed and glanced once at Duo before the mask was back in place. "Because of that, I waited. I thought maybe he was on a mission, but subsequent visits proved that theory wrong. By the time I was certain he was not on a mission, I was also certain that he had not betrayed us, nor intended to." He nodded slightly as he finished, and Diana could practically see the 'mission report completed' in his eyes. That hurt, it had taken her many long months to get her boys to stop acting like every conversation was a mission log. To see it again, to see that the same thing had happened to a real human on another world, made her tired.  
"So you don't think he's a traitor?" Quatre asked.  
Heero shook his head. "Iie."  
"Then I don't suppose we can do any differently," he said, and Diana could practically feel the relief in his voice. She still hadn't figured out how Quatre had managed to stay as... well, good as he was, given that he was a terrorist, but she knew that this had been hard on him. His next words confirmed her opinion – once again – that Quatre was insane. "I'm sorry, Wufei. I don't envy you the position you've gotten yourself into, or the path you walk."  
Wufei stared at him for a long second, then nodded his head slightly. "Thank you," he said quietly. "I will try to prove myself worthy of your trust once more."  
"I will be watching you," Trowa informed him. Wufei nodded in response to that, his expression not changing.  
"Sorry, still in shock here," Duo muttered. "You always have to do it the hard way, don't you?" he asked rhetorically, then shook his head. "Never mind, forget I said anything."  
"There is another issue to consider," Diana broke in, when it looked like the silence would go on for a while. "What you will do with the two prisoners." She was pleased to see that Wufei did not flinch at the way she chose to refer to his lovers. Instead, he straightened slightly, squaring his shoulders.  
"Two prisoners?" Quatre asked. "Velanz..."  
"Is mine," Diana cut him off, a sentiment that was echoed by Brian. "He is mine. The only question is how long I want it to take him to die." She was disturbed by how much truth there was in that statement. She really was considering how long she wanted it to take him to die. She had to get her mind off this line of thought.  
"What you need to decide is what you're going to do with Treize and Zechs," she told them. "You don't have to decide right now..."  
"I don't think we should," Quatre interrupted her this time. "Andrew and I have been keeping an eye on Romafeller, and there are some very odd machinations going on – more than usual," he added. "We thought..." he hesitated for a second, glancing at Andrew. "We thought that it looked like they might be plotting against Khushrenada."  
"Why would they plot against him?" Duo asked. "Thought he was their golden boy!"  
"He's a popular figure that they thought they could marshal the troops behind, according to their correspondence," Andrew said. "They didn't expect him to actually take command. We'll probably know in a day or two just how much they were plotting. If they were about to move against him, they won't be able to resist the opportunity now that he's out of the picture."  
"Damn," Duo said, starting to pace. "He's an asshole – sorry, Wufei – but I'd rather be fighting him than any of them."  
"Then the two of you had better nail down whatever they're planning, and do it fast, while there's still time to stop it," Diana said. "Wufei, maybe you would like to go to the other room and inform them that we're not planning on killing any of you immediately?"  
There was a stunned silence. Unsurprisingly, it was Quatre who recovered first. He nodded shortly. "You may speak with them," he acknowledged. "But..."  
"But one of us has to be there," Trowa interjected. "Or one of them," he inclined his head slightly towards Diana's group.  
"I'll go with you," Diana said, seeing Andrew eyeing her thoughtfully. It seemed that he'd gotten beyond the recent crisis enough to notice her unhealthy attraction to the idea of killing Velanz. Not that he didn't want the bastard dead, but she didn't think he was taking it to the level she was considering. Now that he'd noticed, he'd want to talk to her about it, and she wasn't in the mood.  
Wufei made a quick half-bow in their direction. "I will not tell him anything of what we are planning," he pledged, then glanced at Diana. She nodded to him, then followed him out the door, refusing to look at Andrew on the way.  
Diana managed to control herself this time, and didn't even hesitate as she passed the room where they held Velanz.  
  
-------  
  
"Oh, come on, you can't tell me that you've never been clubbing?" Kane asked disbelievingly.  
"I'm afraid I've never had the pleasure," Treize replied dryly. It was a little hard to believe that he was actually having this conversation, but there it was. After sitting around and exchanging (barely) veiled insults with them for a few minutes, then settled down to ask them about the nightlife on this planet. He was extremely disappointed (or at least he said so) that they weren't up on any of the latest trends, which had led to the current line of questioning.  
He was still shaking his head in dismay over their wayward behavior when the door opened and Diana stepped back in, followed by... Wufei? Zechs was instantly on his feet, and it was only through an extreme exercise in self-control that Treize didn't follow him. Neither of them spoke, however.  
Diana observed their actions with a little smirk, then stepped to the side, angling her body towards Wufei and permitting him to fully enter the room. Wufei was tense – Treize could tell even though his face remained composed and his breathing was calm. There were things that only several months of intimacy could show. "They know about us," he said simply.  
"Yes, Diana told us earlier," Treize said calmly. He'd been playing these games far too long to lose control now, though he dearly wanted to demand to know what was going on.  
Wufei raised one eyebrow slightly at that information. "They've decided they don't believe I am a traitor, though I will be watched very carefully, and I need to prove myself worthy of their trust again."  
Treize breathed a silent sigh of relief, all the while realizing how ridiculous it was for him to be worried about Wufei, when he and Zechs were prisoners here. But he did care for Wufei, and it would have hurt him badly to see Wufei killed or rejected by the other pilots. Especially when he knew that Wufei hadn't betrayed them, would never betray them.  
"They haven't decided what to do with you yet," Diana added.  
"Really? I would have expected that they would execute us immediately and then broadcast the image to every television station on Earth and in the colonies."  
Diana gave him a scathing look, as Kane snorted and muttered something about it being a good plan. "Please give us some credit. The pilots are at least as intelligent as you are, and I am smarter." Treize stiffened slightly at this: not only was it fairly rude, but the way she said it – completely matter-of-factly – somehow made it worse. "They may hate you and your policies and tactics, but they know there are some levels of depravity that you won't drop to. They don't have that reassurance from some of the people who would succeed you."  
"'There are some levels of depravity...' Surely you can do better than that," Zechs murmured.  
Diana turned her head to regard him. "Excuse me?"  
"If you're trying to get a reaction, you'll have to do better than that," Zechs retorted. "Treize has his reasons for what he's done, as I'm sure you're well aware, and he does not have to explain them to you."  
"I wouldn't say that," Kane growled. "I don't know if you noticed, but you're prisoners here."  
Treize, however, was watching Diana, and saw the flicker of irritation, followed by something he couldn't identify, flash across her face. He made a mental note to thank Zechs later, if they survived that long. He had been losing his temper, growing steadily more angry with her continuous barbs, first poking at his intelligence, then his honor. Zechs had seen it and reminded him that he couldn't afford to lose control, especially around this woman, who was trying to bait him, probably to make him blurt something out.  
"I see he serves you the same way his double serves me," Diana said softly, her face once more expressionless.  
"Excuse me?" Treize asked, keeping a firm rein on his temper.  
"Pulls you back when you start to cross a line," she clarified. "Dev's pulled me up short more than once."  
Treize wasn't sure how to respond to that. Luckily, he didn't have to, because she continued, "In any case, you are a... I can't believe I'm saying this, you're a better foe than any who would take your place. However, you are also a great deal more competent than any of them. The pilots might take their chances with someone new, and try to end the war before they can do too much damage," Diana shrugged, as if it didn't matter all that much to her.  
"Diana..." Wufei growled, reminding her that there was one person on her side, at least, who cared.  
"My apologies, Wufei, but it's the truth. You... and your cause... might be better off without him," Diana's voice was still calm as she dealt what had to be a devastating blow to Wufei's mental well-being.  
Wufei stiffened, but didn't break gaze with her. "I understand that, and it may be true, but regardless, there is no need to torment them with this."  
Diana stared back at him, then smiled slightly. "Note that I said 'might'. It would be a great risk, one that I would probably not take, and I am known for risky behavior."  
_That was a test,_ Treize realized. Not for him, but for Wufei. And whether or not he knew it, his dragon had passed.  
Diana opened her mouth to say more, then both she and Kane spun towards the door, their attention clearly focused outwards. And in the next second, Treize found his back pressed up against Diana's front, her hand wrapped around his throat. "Make a sound and you die," she hissed. Treize blinked. He hadn't even seen her move. A few feet away, Kane held Zechs in an identical grasp, one hand ready to crush his windpipe if he moved.  
"Fucking hell!" Diana muttered in a voice barely above a whisper. "How the hell does she keep finding you?!" that question was directed at Wufei, who blinked.  
"Who?"  
"That girl!"  
Wufei blinked again, then turned as the door opened and the double of pilot 04 came in. His eyes flicked around the room once, taking in the scene. "Hey, Kane, wanna try that idea you had last week?"  
Kane's eyes widened slightly, and he grinned. "Really?"  
The other boy tossed him something, which Kane caught with his free hand. He opened his fist to reveal a carrying case for contact glasses. "You'll have to go from here," the other boy continued as he walked forward to take Kane's place. "She keeps looking in the window." He placed his hand over Kane's, then Kane slipped away and the other boy moved behind Zechs.  
"Got it," Kane said, opening the case and inserting the contacts. As he did that, his skin and hair started to darken, finally settling on pale and light brown, respectively. Then he turned to look at them, and Treize started at the blue-purple eyes. He looked exactly like pilot 02. "How's that?"  
"You look fine and you know it," Diana said, keeping her voice low. "What idea are you going to try out?"  
"Don't worry, I won't kill her," Kane said as he started removing his clothes, starting with his shoes. "I won't even hurt her, just going to scare her off, one way or another." By then his pants, socks, and shoes were gone, and as they watched, he removed his shirt, then underwear, until he stood naked in front of them. Despite the circumstances, Treize found himself studying the planes of the young man's body. Diana had mentioned at some point that they'd been designed with beauty in mind, and he believed it.  
"I don't believe it," Diana muttered. "I didn't think it was true before, but now I do – all men think with their dicks!"  
"Hey, I don't!" the boy holding Zechs protested.  
"You're not human," Diana pointed out, to which he shrugged and nodded. "What is it about your world?" she directed the question at Treize. "Are all pilots gay, or just the superior ones? Is it something in the water?"  
Kane, in the meantime, had been unraveling his long braid, arranging his hair around him. Now he strode over to where the glass of water still stood on the bedside table, and dipping his fingers into it, dabbed the water onto his face, making him look as if he'd been sweating. "Do I looked bad enough?" he asked.  
"Mess up your hair a little," the other boy instructed. They might as well have been discussing mobile suit tactics, by the expressions on their faces.  
Kane nodded and shook his head a few times, running his hands through his hair. Treize averted his eyes. Enticing as the sight was, it would only get him in trouble. Diana laughed. "See? There's the lust aspect that was missing before, when you looked at me," she said softly.  
"OK, let's try this another way," Kane said, pulling the door open. "Give me... oh, three minutes, tops." He stepped through the door, pulling it only partway closed.  
The room must have been soundproofed somehow, because with the door open, Treize could now hear a girl's voice calling, "Heero!"  
He frowned. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. To his side, Zechs suddenly lurched, fighting against the hands that held him. "Relena..." he said, the hissed word trailing off into a strangled gasp as Andrew's fingers tightened around his throat.  
Relena Peacecraft? Treize knew that the girl had an odd ability to locate Heero Yuy almost anywhere on the planet – he'd instructed his agents to keep an eye out for her because of it. It would be incredibly good (or bad) luck that she would find them now... Treize looked over at where Zechs stood statue-still, his entire body radiating distress.  
"He's not going to hurt her, just scare her off, maybe teach her to mind her own business," the boy murmured in Zechs' ear as Wufei moved to peer out the door.  
"He's just talking to her through the door, it's barely cracked open," Wufei reported. "And... she's trying to push it open," he said with a grimace. There was a silence, then a muffled shriek. "She got it open," he finished with a smirk.  
And Kane's voice carried quite clearly as he said, "So now that you know what you interrupted, would you leave?" A second later the door slammed closed.  
"Ha!" Kane exclaimed as he walked back into the room and started redressing. "You should have seen the look on her face when she got the door open!" he gloated. "I'll draw you a picture later, it was priceless!"  
"Think maybe you scared her off for good?" Diana asked hopefully. Her head turned as she spoke, and her eyes were distant, as if she was tracking something by sound. Whatever she heard caused her to relax, releasing Treize and stepping away from him. The other boy also released Zechs, who remained as tense as before, and was steadfastly refusing to look at Kane.  
"Hell if I know, but she's gone now, and didn't catch sight of them, which was the point," Kane replied, completely serious for a second. Then he grinned. "Plus it was fun!"  
"Glad you enjoyed yourself," Diana commented dryly, before turning towards Zechs. "Now... That was an interesting reaction you had back there." Her eyes flicked towards the other boy.  
"He had a very strong emotional reaction," he reported matter-of- factly. "I didn't catch what kind, he suppressed it too fast."  
"Really?" Diana asked innocently. "All right. So, Zechs..." the way she drew out his voice showed plainly that she knew it wasn't his true name, "who is she to you?"  
  
I'm really, really sorry about how long it's taken me to get out new parts. Short story, I've basically had writer's block for the last... oh, 8 – 10 months, where I would sit down in front of a story and nothing would happen for hours. It seems to have faded, at least for now, although I probably won't have much time in the next few months anyway, due to thesis and other minor issues.  
  
I really like writing from Treize's perspective, he's got (at least in my mind) a sort of off-kilter view of everything. He's got his passions, but mostly he's very distanced from them the majority of the time. Very odd.  
  
Marika 11/4/03


	17. Part 16

Zechs swallowed, staring at Diana. "What?" he asked, his tone cool. He was probably less than totally enthused that his little sister had just been accosted at the door by a naked man, Treize reflected.  
"Who. Is. She. To. You." Diana bit off the end of each word, speaking slowly, as if Zechs were somehow mentally deficient.  
Zechs didn't reply, choosing to stare straight ahead.  
When it became clear after a few seconds that he wasn't going to respond, something changed in Diana. All of the laughter left her eyes, and something in them hardened. "You seem to be missing the point here," she said slowly, carefully. "Just because we choose to treat you well doesn't change the fact that you are prisoners. When you are asked questions, you will answer them. And if you don't answer, I will force the answers out of you. And I can do it. Many of our sciences are much more advanced than yours are, torture is among them. And as much as I have enjoyed our little discussions, I will turn you over to Andrew if you persist in this foolishness." Her tone was strongly reminiscent of when she'd calmly suggested shooting Zechs in the knees, back at the base.  
Treize looked at the other boy – finally named Andrew – and was disturbed by what he saw there. So far, the boy had seemed the most friendly of any of them – Diana might smile more, but all too often there was a cruel edge in it. Andrew's smile seemed, softer, somehow. Not anymore. All of the emotion was gone from both his face and eyes, and he wasn't quite looking at Zechs. His eyes were ever-so-slightly off focus as they traveled up and down his body, as if as great deal of his attention was focused inward.  
He could see from Zechs' body posture that not only was he not going to relent, but he was preparing to say something that would undoubtably anger their captors further. He had a gift for that.  
Treize quickly came to a decision. "My apologies, Zechs, but I don't want to watch that." His reasons went far deeper than that, of course, starting with the fact that he thought they _might_ actually be able to get the information out of Zechs against his will, and Zechs would never forgive himself for that. Better that he be angry with a minor betrayal on Treize's part than failure on his own. "The young woman is Zechs' sister, and he is somewhat protective of her."  
A flash of satisfaction crossed her face, and too late he saw the trap he'd fallen into. She knew that he was protective of those under his command, and Zechs more than most, and had been counting on that protectiveness (coupled with the memories of his capture) to get her the information she wanted.  
Then she blinked. "Wait, _your_ sister?" she asked with a slight frown. "That makes you a Peacecraft. No wonder you wear a mask." Then her frowned deepened, eyes narrowing. "She is your sister," she repeated thoughtfully, then her eyes flew open. "Oh my..." she clapped a hand to her mouth. "I think I am going to be sick," she said softly.  
Andrew stared at her for a second, then blinked, looked from Zechs to her, and looked mildly horrified. "It's not the same," he said sharply, walking over and putting an arm around her. "We're not the same, not any of us, and you less than us." She was still staring at Zechs. "It's disturbing, but it doesn't mean anything to us."  
Diana finally unfroze. "I suppose you're right," she said faintly, then shook herself, as if it was only then that she was aware that they were all staring at her. She gave a little laugh – an obviously fake one, to his ears. "Can't believe after everything I've been through, _that's_ what gets to me," she murmured, with a slight chuckle that sounded more genuine.  
"If you don't mind... What is going on?" Treize allowed a bit of an edge to creep into his voice. Their entire situation was beginning to irritate him, and he didn't have a problem with sharing that.  
"Do you remember I told you my real name, back before you knew what I was and where I came from?" she asked.  
He didn't see what the connection was, but decided to hold his peace, at least for the moment. "Yes. I remember. Diana Dorlian..." he trailed off, looking towards the door, where Relena had been. She was now using the name Relena Peacecraft, accepting her birthright where Zechs had rejected it, but for 15 years she'd gone by the name Relena Dorlian... "Your father was..."  
"Ambassador Dorlian, the same as hers was," Diana responded. She looked vaguely irritated. "It's hard to figure out exactly who we would have been..." she shrugged. "Well, maybe not so hard, for some of you, but it's likely she's who I might have been, had I been born here."  
"You don't look like her," Zechs said stiffly.  
"Well, you don't look exactly like Dev, but that's not the point," Diana replied. "Your sister is a pretty girl, but that wouldn't be enough for the people who created me. They were looking for superhuman beauty, literally. But if you look at us closely, you can sort of see the resemblance, mostly in the shape of the face and the eyes." She looked directly at Zechs. "I suppose you can consider yourself lucky I was born in another world, brother dearest." He flinched.  
"Interesting as this is, it doesn't explain why you were so upset when you found out that he is her brother," Treize said. "I can't imagine the thought is that distressing."  
"No, it isn't. But the why is a personal matter, and I don't choose to discuss it with you," she said coldly. Then her eyes unfocused slightly. "Andrew, you and I have things that we need to deal with. Kane, do you mind staying for as long as Wufei..." she trailed off as Wufei shook his head.  
"I, also, have matters I must deal with," he said, looking from Zechs to Treize. His expression remained neutral, but there was a look in his eyes, pleading for understanding. Which he had – Treize understood Wufei's conflicted loyalties, as much as anyone could, and knew how important it was, especially now, that he not neglect his 'duties' as a terrorist. Treize smiled slightly at the thought. Wufei was harder on himself than almost anyone Treize had ever met, up to and including Zechs.  
He inclined his head slightly towards Wufei, who didn't respond except to turn away.  
"Fine, now that we've dealt with that..." Diana inclined her head towards the door, and both Andrew and Wufei walked through it. "Kane..."  
"I'll stay here for a while, if you don't need me," Kane replied, dragging a chair over and straddling it. "We never finished our discussion..."  
Diana stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged. "Don't hurt them," she ordered, then glanced at Treize and smiled. "Have fun!" she called as she breezed out the door.  
Treize exchanged a glance with Zechs, wondering what they were in for. The fact that Kane apparently needed multiple reminders that he was not to hurt them was not reassuring.  
"So..." Kane drew out the word. "You've really never been to a club? What about a rave?"  
  
------------  
  
"Wow, they didn't waste any time," Andrew muttered, looking at the orders for troop movements. "Look," he instructed, turning his screen towards her.  
Diana glanced over from where she was working at hacking the personal correspondence of a member of Romafeller, shifting slightly as Quatre came over so that he could read over her shoulder. The three of them were trying to figure out exactly what Romafeller was doing – it had only taken an hour or so to establish some major movement among the players as soon as Treize was out of the picture, now they were trying to figure out what they were doing, before everyone came back and they had to make some decisions.  
Devin and Shin had headed out for some local reconnaissance, Heero and Duo had headed for a 'meeting' with the scientists, to deal with some of the aftermath of their sweep of the labs for traitors. Trowa and Wufei each had a mission, and had left during the night. Kane was still 'entertaining' their prisoners, and since Diana hadn't heard any screams or crashes, she assumed he was behaving himself.   
"Shit." Diana did not like the look of the information she was seeing. Troops were being shifted, but not in a way that made any sense, if you were trying to win a war against an outward enemy. Certain groups of troops were being shifted away from strategic bases, while others were moving towards positions... well, Diana was no expert at warfare groundside, but even she could tell that they were moving into positions that were vulnerable and likely to get them ambushed.   
There was an incredible amount of pointless moving going on all around, and that was what Diana didn't like. If it seemed pointless, it was because she didn't know what was going on yet, and Diana did not like not knowing what was going on. She'd survived as long as she had by always knowing more than her opponents, to be in the dark was not a sensation she was familiar with.   
"That matches up with what I'm seeing," Quatre agreed. "A lot of personnel transfers are going through. A very high number, and they all came through in the last eight hours."   
It had been less than twenty-four since they kidnapped Treize. Diana frowned, and pushed her laptop towards Andrew, holding out her hand for his. "Can you keep working on this? I want to look at that for a minute. There's something simple I'm missing."   
He took it and started working, while Diana sat back, staring at the screen. There's too many little movements, she decided. _Tiny movements, actually. Individual men? Why bother shifting around individual men in an army? You move the group, unless...unless you need those individual men for some reason._ "Damn it! They're going to take over," she said, getting the attention of the other two. "They're moving their agents into position, moving the rest either out of the way, or to places where they're going to get massacred by the Alliance."   
"How long do we have?" Quatre asked, abandoning his seat again.   
"Not long," Diana said, staring at the screen. Now that she'd figured it out, it seemed so obvious, she couldn't figure out why it had taken so long. "I'd say in less than 24 hours, you're going to be dealing with one of Romafeller in charge, instead of Khushrenada." Exactly what they'd been hoping to avoid. Anyone that Romafeller chose to put in charge would be a complete puppet – they'd made that mistake with Treize once, they wouldn't make it again.   
"Can we stop it?" Andrew asked.   
Diana stared at the screen. "Aside from starting wholesale assassination against Romafeller, or taking over their entire communications network, I don't think so. We can't even forge orders, they already have their marching orders... maybe if we'd caught it a couple of hours earlier..." she was furious with herself. This was exactly the sort of thing she was supposed to prevent! "I don't even think we could stop it if we let Treize go this minute. He won't be able to get command back in time, there's too much confusion, and the enemy is moving."   
Quatre blinked, his eyes going vague. "Fine. If we can't stop them, then we can at least hinder them." He leaned over and looked at the screen. "Can you get orders to these groups?" he asked, pointed at several of the ones who were most exposed, who were in perfect position for the Alliance to come and wipe them out. "Get them to pull back so they won't all be killed?"   
Diana blinked at him. "I don't see why not, but why?"   
Quatre smiled. "Well, I think we're all agreed that we'd be better off with Treize in charge than anyone from Romafeller. If Romafeller is trying to wipe those troops out, that means that they're loyal to Treize, which means we need them alive."   
Diana blinked again. Here was another one of those cases of her completely not understanding this particular Gundam pilot. She did agree that they'd be better off with Treize in charge – an enemy who would not commit atrocities was infinitely preferable to one who would, even if he was smarter. But it seemed stupid to her to try to save as many as Treize's men as possible. She would save as few as them as she could while still ensuring he had enough men to take back command. Then he'd use up his resources taking over, and be easier to defeat in the long run. But no, Quatre had to try to save everyone, all the time. She wondered how he had managed to keep from burning himself out after all this time.   
"We can do that," Diana replied. This was his world, she was willing to play by his rules, however odd they looked to her.   
"No we can't," Andrew interrupted. "They've been ordered to ignore any further communications for the next 24 hours. Romafeller isn't taking any chances with those groups."   
"What?!" Now Diana was pissed. She might not agree with Quatre's choice, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let some old men take the choice away from them.   
"That's horrible!" Quatre breathed, again looking at Diana's screen. "All those men."   
Diana stood up, shoving the computer away from her. She thought quickly. "There may be another way. If Romafeller is trying to get them killed off, instead of just getting them out of the way, it stands to follow that these are the men most loyal to Treize." She tilted her head towards Quatre. "He's got to have some way to get in contact with them, to convince them to obey his orders, and not Romafeller's."   
"But do you think he'd tell you?" Quatre asked doubtfully. "These are his people he'd be exposing."   
"To save their lives?" Diana asked. "I think he would."

----------  
  
Diana found Kane chatting amiably with Zechs about their personal preferences in music, and apparently comparing bands from the different worlds, figuring out which ones existed in both. She pushed open the door, and Kane immediately fell silent, sensing the change in her mood. After so many years with her, they could tell her moods better than anyone, and could tell her moods from a twitch of her finger or eyebrow. She'd actually heard Kane and Shin bragging about it to each other once.  
"There is a problem, Treize," she said without preamble. "Romafeller has taken advantage of your absence to launch an attack to take over their own army. It hasn't started yet, but they've started moving troops into position, and will probably commence with the attack in a few hours. There's nothing any of us can do to stop it now."  
Her news upset him, she could tell, even though he hid it well. After a few seconds he got control of himself and asked, "If that is the case, why are you telling me this?"  
"Because they also intend to wipe out quite a few of your men in the process," Diana told him. "We speculate it's those most loyal to you. We'd like to prevent that, if we can. But we're going to need your cooperation."  
She could almost see his guard come up. "How so?" he asked neutrally.  
"They've been given orders that are going to get them killed, and on top of that, they were ordered to ignore any further communications. We thought that you might have some way to get in contact with some of the men in those groups, to let them know that you're alive, and to order them away from those positions." She decided to try to cut through as many of his objections as quickly as she could. "Yes, it will mean exposing those people to the Gundam pilots, but if you don't agree, they will die anyway," she told him flatly, making no attempt to soften the blow. "We will let you contact as many men in those groups as you wish. We will be monitoring the conversation, and if it looks like you're trying to pass along any information about your present location or any of us, we will terminate the connection immediately. Those are the terms. Well?"  
She could practically see a question hovering on his lips, trying to escape, but he swallowed and nodded. "Where is the comm.?"

----------  
  
Whatever else she had to say about him, Diana couldn't fault the discipline of his men. Aside from a couple who took a couple minutes to get over their joy at seeing him alive and unharmed, they kept their exclamations down to, "Your Excellency! Are you all right? We heard..." All he generally had to do was hold up a hand without saying a word, and they cut off the streams of questions.  
His orders were generally brief, and to the point. The basic gist of the message was that the chain of command had broken down somewhere, and all orders that they had received since his 'capture' were considered suspect. They were ordered to leave their current position immediately, then to take whatever steps they deemed necessary to preserve themselves and their men until they heard further word from him. Most of the men simply saluted and excused themselves when it was clear he was finished, a few asked a couple of questions, and only one attempted to ask again where Treize was. Treize smoothly deflected the question, then quickly hung up.  
When he had finished talking to all the men whose units were in danger, Treize turned to look at her.  
"You didn't try to pass them any information about yourself," she observed. She hadn't thought he would risk it, not with his men's lives at stake, but there was no way to be certain.  
"Did you honestly think I would make a doomed attempt to pass along information at the expense of my men's lives?" he asked scornfully, not looking at her.  
"No, I didn't, otherwise I wouldn't have allowed you to do it," she replied.  
He looked at her and frowned slightly. He stared at her for a long moment, not speaking, and he saw something change in his face, like stripping off a mask. "What are you going to do with us?" he asked, his voice soft.  
Diana caught a glimpse of his eyes and quickly averted her own. For the first time since she'd met him, his eyes had been momentarily unveiled, with nothing behind them but curiosity and worry. No hidden schemes or double meanings, just a question. She didn't want to see that, not when they might have to kill him later. She already viewed him as a person, she didn't want to see this now. She'd still kill him, if it came to that, but this would make it harder. She had enough 'hard' in her life already. "Not my decision," she said off-handedly. "Come on, let's get back before Zechs decides that we've done away with you."

------------  
  
Treize wasn't sure what had come over him. He'd been in the game for years, more than half of his life, he knew better than to forget himself like that! But at that moment, when some of his strongest enemies, who had him at their mercy, decided to spare his men, not to punish them for his sins, his relief had been great enough to break through all the limits he placed on himself. And though he cursed himself for the slip, even that was not useless, since for a second he'd seen something in Diana's eyes, and then saw her avert them.  
_She didn't want to look at me when I was weakest,_ he thought, watching the back of her head. She showed no hesitation at all in walking in front of him, putting her back to him. It was probably because she didn't view him as a threat. And, though he hated to admit it, she was probably justified in her confidence. The training he had in hand-to-hand combat was hardly sufficient to overcome her greater physical strength, and she was as trained as he was.  
He put aside thoughts of attacking her physically, and went back to that moment when she averted her eyes. Why had it been? She certainly didn't hesitate to use people's weaknesses against them, so why would she look away from him then?  
They got to the room where Treize and Zechs were being held, and Diana gestured for him to enter it. She stayed behind.  
Kane was apparently still keeping up a running monologue on all the clubs he'd visited, along with every piece of music he'd ever heard, judging by the slightly pained expression on Zech's face. He trailed off as Treize entered, raising an eyebrow at Diana, who stood in the door but didn't enter. She stared back at him without blinking for almost a full minute, then shrugged slightly and closed the door. Treize heard a lock turning, but try as he might, he couldn't make out the sounds of her footfalls on the hardwood floor of the hall.  
"What happened?" Zechs asked, ignoring Kane for the time being.  
"They allowed me to contact my people, as they said. I gave them a warning, it will be some time before we see if they were able to escape the trap set for them," Treize replied calmly, not mentioning that they'd only find out if their captors let them know, if they were still alive to find out in a few days.  
"You heard what Diana said before about you being a better enemy than those assholes," Kane said disgustedly. "It's hardly worth releasing you if they've managed to kill off all your men. That is, if they decide to release you and not kill you," he added with a wicked grin. "Just keeping our options open."

OK, I know it's been forever since I wrote anything. I just graduated from college, after writing a thesis and other minor irritations that have kept me from writing. I'm looking for a job now, so I don't know how much writing I'll be able to do, but more than before, at least. I am going to finish this story, probably in the next few months, but it goes slowly at first as I get back into the mindset of the characters.  
  
Bonus points for anyone who can figure out why Diana was so upset at the beginning of the chapter.  
  
Marika 5/3/04 


	18. Part 17

"Shit, this sucks," Duo observed, looking over Heero's shoulder at Romafeller's troop movements.

Most of Treize's troops had proven their skill and ingenuity in escaping the traps that Romafeller had laid for them, but the solution might have been worse than the original problem. In the wake of the betrayal of their superiors, the men loyal to Treize had declared war on those they used to obey, and it was spilling out into the streets. Exactly the situation that they'd been trying to prevent from the beginning. The fact that most of the fighting was taking place on Earth, rather than in the colonies they'd sworn to protect, was of little help.

"We have to decide tonight," Quatre said softly from where he sat. Everyone else but Devin was out on various reconnaissance missions, and some had been gone for a few days, but they were all due back in the next few hours. It was only a week since they captured Treize, and would be the first time they'd all been together since Romafeller made their move, and Quatre didn't like what he was seeing develop. Treize's men – who were calling themselves the 'Treize Faction' were fighting hard, but without cohesive leadership, they would lose. Leadership that only Treize could provide.

And time was running short. Things were coming to a head, and if they wanted Treize to be able to recover most of his men in time to do **anything** with them, he needed to be out there, and quickly. So when everyone came back, they were going to have to make a decision, whether they were going to release Treize and put him back in charge, or kill him and try to deal with Romafeller themselves. He would wait until he heard all the reports before making a decision, but it didn't sound good. Duo had come back this morning in a foul mood, muttering about it being almost as bad as L2, back in the day.

Quatre knew what he was talking about. Surprised and caught off-guard by yet another betrayal from within, the Romafeller troops were panicking – probably with good reason, this was the second time they'd been caught off-guard, and if they didn't squelch the opposition quickly, the people might swing their support to the troops who fought for a popular and charismatic leader, Treize Khushrenada. The result was completely unacceptable, though – they declared martial law in every city they took, and were brutal in enforcing it. It wasn't unheard of for people to disappear on a simple trip to the store, and many had abandoned the streets entirely, hiding out in their own homes until lack of food forced them out. Already several regions were experiencing severe economic hardships from commerce all but stopping in the cities, and riots would follow.

Now he was left to try to decide which was the lesser of two evils – to allow this to continue, or to put their most dangerous enemy back in power.

The Gundam pilots didn't have a clear command structure among themselves the way their doubles did, but Quatre knew that the decision still rested on him. By now, the others respected his judgment, and he knew he'd be able to talk them around if they disagreed. Most of the time he was proud of the trust that they gave him (however obliquely), but today, more than most days, the responsibility it implied weighed heavily on him.

A light flashed in the corner of his screen, indicating a news flash, and he clicked on the link. A breaking news story scrawled in front of his horrified eyes. "Oh no," he breathed.

"What is it, Quat?" Duo asked, noticing him. He was really quite observant, though he tried to hide it.

"There was a riot in Rome. Romafeller troops fired into the crowd to subdue them. Casualties are still being calculated, but they're expected to top one hundred."

"Shit."

"So, that's what we've seen," Quatre said unnecessarily after Trowa had finished his report of the chaos he'd seen in Russia. It was just like the reports from everywhere else, the chaos, the abuse of power by Romafeller's troops, the killings, and the growing underground support for the Treize Faction. This war might succeed where others had failed to finally bring home the nature of war to those who lived on Earth. It made the situation even more volatile: Trieze, if he managed to get control, would have more power now then he did when he was captured. If he managed to get control. Diana wasn't sure that even he could pull this one off.

By mutual agreement, Diana and her people were staying out of this discussion. They'd given their reports in as neutral a fashion as they could manage, then stepped back to let the pilots make the decision. Her people had no right to take part in a decision that could have a very long-lasting impact on this world, not when they had to leave in three days. Bad enough the damage they'd done through their ignorance of the political climate and the ramifications their actions would have. This decision had to be made by the pilots. That didn't mean that the six of them weren't sitting outside the room where the pilots were debating, hanging on every word as they waited in silence.

"So what do you think? Who do we want in charge, Romafeller or Treize? A few bombs at Romafeller's headquarters, and we can be sure who we want will be in charge."

It didn't escape Diana's notice that Quatre hadn't made an offer to bomb Treize's troops, and knew that he, at least, had already made up his mind. The others would probably follow his lead, though it might take him a while to talk them around, depending on how strongly they felt on the issue.

Diana was not happy with the vague relief she felt at knowing that Treize and Zechs wouldn't be killed. Emotional attachments were chancy at best, in her business, and with an enemy, it was ten times worse, no matter what they'd said to Wufei. She was just grateful that Treize was only her enemy in this universe. In three days they'd leave, and never see any of the others again, unless they deliberately came over. She couldn't imagine either her people or the pilots having enough time for that. The thought made her vaguely sad, but she pushed the emotion aside with the ease of long practice. In three days this 'vacation' would be over, and she'd be back in **her** war, her fight.

That thought led her to Velanz. He'd spent the last several days unconscious, thanks to an IV that Trowa had scrounged from somewhere. As soon as Diana had gotten back, though, she'd removed it. She wanted him fully conscious before they had to go.

There was no way that they could take him with them. They'd be jumping, mostly blind, into an unknown situation, probably into enemy territory. They'd be better supplied for this trip than for the one that had brought them here, but in all likelihood they were going to have to fight their way out of wherever they landed. It would be beyond insane to try to bring a prisoner into that, especially one who was on the same side as those they'd be fighting.

At least, it would be insane to bring a live prisoner into that. A body, they could probably manage, and just drop it if it turned out to be too much trouble to drag his corpse around. Diana wanted to bring his body along, if they could manage it, her people back home could do a lot of useful propaganda with the body of one of the higher-ups of the Alliance. But it wasn't worth it to keep him alive, not any longer.

She shouldn't have put it off this long. She should have just put the bullet she shot him with back in Treize's office into his head instead of his shoulder. She should have just killed him when they brought him back to the safe house, rather than order that he be given minimal first aid to keep him alive. And she should have killed him when they left on all their reconnaissance missions, rather than have him knocked out for that time.

The fact was, though, that she'd been unable to banish thoughts of getting revenge on him for what he did to her, and a quick death – a bullet-shot to the head or heart – would not do it. He'd held her – tortured her – for months, and deep down, she wanted to make him **pay** for that. Make him pay for the months of pain, of grief, for knowing that her father (and he was her father, no matter who was responsible for her creation) was dead, and that it was her fault. And that didn't even touch all the anger she felt at Velanz for what he'd done to her family, Andrew and Brian and the others… He deserved to be punished.

_Yes, he deserves to be punished, but does that make it right? _Her conscience reminded her. She knew it didn't, not really, but still, she **wanted** to punish him. At this point, she wasn't sure why she didn't just torture him and be done with it. It might actually help her get this taste for blood out of her system.

But something was holding her back. She didn't want to take that last step, give in to the urge and actually torture him, because she'd be stepping across a line she'd set for herself a long time ago. She would – and had – tortured people before, when they had information she needed, or to set an example for others. She'd never tortured anyone for no other reason than because she wanted to. And she was scared – terrified, even – that if she did, she'd cross a threshold from which there was no return, and finally lose what little humanity she had.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, and Diana scolded herself, angry that she'd gotten so caught up in her thoughts that she had become unaware of her surroundings. Automatically schooling her features to be neutral, Diana turned her head to look at Andrew. His expression was mildly disapproving.

"You're thinking about this too much," he mouthed silently, looking a little worried.

Diana frowned slightly, but didn't dispute the observation. She **was** thinking about this too much. She'd always had a tendency to approach problems with an almost-obsessive determination, and the years she'd spend as the Tiger hadn't done anything to dispel that tendency. The passage of time had actually made it worse, actually. And this was not a good topic to be obsessing about.

"If I didn't think that you'd kill me for it, I'd go in there and kill him right now," he continued silently.

Her frown deepened as she realized that she could practically feel the tension radiating off of him in waves. Not anger at Velanz, but worry for her poured over her in a wave that she could almost feel against her skin.

"I'm fine," she said in a whisper, immediately drawing the attention of the rest of the boys.

They all looked at her, eyes flicking from her to Andrew to the door to the room where they'd stashed Velanz and back again in a heartbeat. There were times when Diana wished that they weren't quite as quick as they were, mostly when they caught her attempting to deceive either herself or one of them.

"You're letting your anger cloud your judgment," Brian said seriously, a hint of disapproval in his voice. It was the first time he'd ever said that to her – in fact, he'd always been impressed with her ability to separate action from emotion – and the fact that he thought that about her now stung.

Diana felt a cool anger rising, this one directed at Brian. "I am fine," she said in a low voice.

"Prove it," Kane said quietly, eyes fixed on her. "Much as I'd like to hang him by his ankles and watch his blood drip out of him, one drop at a time…" he grinned. "You **are** thinking about this too much. He isn't fucking worth your time, or the effort you're putting into it. Just go shoot him in the fucking head."

Diana looked around at the five boys, and saw agreement on all their faces. If they all agreed on this… It didn't happen very often that all five would be in complete agreement, and that they agreed on this in particular meant they were probably right, damn it.

"Fine," she agreed unwillingly. She pulled out her gun and turned towards Velanz's room.

"All right," Quatre said, feeling as if he'd just fought a six-hour battle in Sandrock. A quick glance at the clock told him that less than an hour had passed since they'd started debating. And he hadn't even had to do much arguing – the others had either been in agreement with him, or torn, but willing to listen (sort of) to reasonable arguments.

"I can't believe this," Duo grumbled. "I can't believe we caught him, and now we're going to let the son-of-a-bitch go. Sorry, Wu."

"My name is Wufei," he growled, not even bothering to address the apology.

Quatre thought that was a good sign, really. Wufei had been a little quieter than usual during the debate, and hadn't expressed his own opinion until near the end. He was for putting Treize back in charge, unsurprisingly, but his reasons (at least his expressed ones) were all logically sound, and meshed with Quatre's own observations. He seemed to be dealing with them knowing, and at least trying to appear like his old self. They'd deal with how he would act when Treize was fighting them again when they came to it.

"Where?" Heero asked, pulling up a world map, then zeroing in on their current location.

"We could drop him off at the nearest base," Trowa suggested dryly. "He'd have a fifty-fifty chance that they wouldn't shoot him on sight."

"Ha ha, very funny," Quatre said, shooting his lover a sharp look. Trowa had been one of the undecided ones, and Quatre wasn't sure if he'd actually been convinced, or if he was just going along because he couldn't come up with enough arguments against it. He leaned over to look at the map. "It looks as if the Treize faction is gathering troops in a camp a few hours from here. If we take the two of them there tonight and drop them five or ten miles from the camp, that should give us enough time to pack up and get clear, and get them to his men."

He waited for several seconds, but there were no objections. "I'll go tell the others that we're moving out," he said, his thoughts traveling to them for the first time in a while. "Wufei, would you please tell Treize…" he gasped as his uchuu no koroko (1) touched someone in great pain. His eyes filled with tears as he momentarily got caught up in the other person's emotion, then found himself clenching his fists and reaching for his gun as a wave of rage overtook him.

A hand grabbed his arm, and he had the safety off with his finger on the trigger, the gun aimed precisely at Trowa's head before he realized what he was doing. Trowa's surprise – visible only in the slight widening of his eyes – was enough to shock Quatre out of it, bring him back to himself. He put the safety back on and pointed the gun at the floor, trying to keep his hands from visibly shaking.

"Quatre?" the others were staring at him, and darting quick glances around the room, trying to figure out what had set him off. They all had their guns out, as well.

"I… I felt something. Someone nearby…" before he could finish what he was saying, Wufei was out the door, heading toward the room where they'd stored Treize, gun at the ready, with Duo on his heels. But Quatre already knew that the OZ commander wasn't the source of the distress.

Quatre concentrated for a second, then looked at Trowa. "It's Diana," he said, and Heero was already on his way out the door, heading towards Velanz's room. Diana's people weren't the only ones who'd noticed her interest in their other prisoner, for all that she'd never actually looked at him since bringing him here.

The door wasn't open, a problem which Heero remedied by kicking it in. Quatre winced as the door slammed into the wall and stayed there, the handle imbedded in the wall itself. There was the sound of a half-dozen guns being cocked, and Quatre froze. Heero had his gun pointed into the room, Diana's five had their guns pointed at the door. As soon as they saw who it was, they put up their guns, and turned their attention back to the scene in front of them. Quatre, now that the immediate danger of friendly fire was gone, looked where they did.

Diana was standing next to the bed, holding Velanz in the air, her hand around his throat. Velanz was struggling to breath, his face slowly changing from red to purple. Diana's face was calm, almost disinterested as she held him without visible strain, but Quatre was afraid to reach out and try to touch her again, after what he'd sensed before.

"Wanna… know… his… last… words?" Velanz gasped.

Diana threw him across the room into the wall. Velanz managed to land so he didn't break anything, but his head knocked sharply against the wall when he landed, and he slumped to the floor, shaking his head.

"Why yes," Diana said in a polite, conversational tone as she stalked around the bed to reach Velanz. "I believe that I would like to hear what he said to the man who murdered him."

"I wasn't there, of course," Velanz said, wiping some blood from his lip with his good arm. "But I was told that he said that killing him wouldn't do any good. Of course, it took some time, but I'd say it did quite a lot of good. You went on a killing spree as soon as you were able, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did. You were the one I wanted, but you escaped. That time," Diana crouched beside him, her face still eerily calm. "Though I'm interested to hear why you think the death of your own men was 'a lot of good'." She reached down and grasped his right hand in her left.

"You scared people when you did that. Ours, your own, and all those civilians you claim to protect. You scared them, because for a short while, you let your true self out." He gasped, looked down at his own hand, and Quatre saw that she'd begun to squeeze his fingers.

Quatre looked at Andrew. "Stop her!" he hissed, although he didn't know why he was bothering to speak quietly, Diana was certain to hear him.

Andrew stared at him with wide eyes. "We can't," he said simply.

"Why not, she's destroying herself?!" Quatre demanded.

Diana didn't appear to be aware of their conversation. She picked up Velanz by his hand – it was his bad arm, and he gasped at the forced movement of his shoulder – and threw him against another wall, but when he settled, he was smiling. "You see? All of the trappings of humanity that you've pulled around yourself…" he looked at Andrew and sneered. "The farce of a 'relationship' you've built with Four."

Andrew stiffened, and turned his head slowly towards Velanz, while continuing his conversation with Quatre. "She'd never forgive us if we interrupted her now."

"You can't let her…" Quatre started, then trailed off when Kane looked at him.

"The Tiger does what she wants to do," he said, smiling slightly as Diana reached again for Velanz's hand. "Besides, truth be told, we don't really want to stop her."

Quatre looked around and saw that it was true – while none of the boys looked particularly happy, none of them looked very unhappy, either.

"You're a killing machine, nothing more," Velanz spat out, then cried out as Diana squeezed his hand again.

"You're wrong," she said through teeth set in a fixed smile.

Quatre felt movement behind him, and glanced back to see Treize standing in the doorway, watching the scene inside with great interest. Behind him stood Wufei, and an unhappy Duo was beyond him, keeping a wary eye on Zechs while at the same time trying to see inside the crowded room.

"Look at your vaunted successes," Velanz gasped, and Quatre turned his attention back to the drama unfolding in front of him, even as he felt Treize step into the room, standing beside him. "Is there anything you've accomplished that isn't part of your war against the Alliance? Anything at all? You have performed your function well, Eight." He smiled slightly, blood staining his teeth.

Was he insane? Was he trying to get himself a long, painful death. _He is_, Quatre suddenly realized. _He's trying to push her past the breaking point. He knows he's going to die, and he's doing his best to take her with him._

Diana didn't respond to this latest taunt, just tilted her head to the side slightly, then crouched down beside him. A knife suddenly appeared in her hand, and she touched it to Velanz's cheek, not breaking the skin, but close. Sweat broke out on Velanz's forehead, but he didn't stop talking. "What do you want to do now, Eight? You want to tear me apart. Admit it. It's because of what you are."

A gun suddenly joined the knife, pressed against his cheek. "No, I believe it is because you are a killer who has hurt her badly," Treize said calmly. He turned his head towards Diana, who had gone rigid at the intrusion and was now staring at his gun. "I'm sorry, my lady, but you shouldn't soil you hands with this. Please, allow me."

For a moment, everyone just froze, staring at the scene. Diana, crouched in front of Velanz, a knife pressing against his cheek, and Treize standing calmly beside her, the gun in his hand aimed at Velanz's head. Then Quatre's brain caught up with what he was seeing. _Gun in his hand…_ Quatre shot an accusing glance at Wufei, who blinked, then frowned furiously, while Quatre tried to tell himself that it wasn't entirely Wufei's fault, he hadn't noticed anything either.

"What…" Diana's voice was just as calm as always, "…do you think you're doing?"

"I am going to kill this man. Please step back."

"He's mine." That came out in almost a growl, and Diana finally looked at something besides Velanz. She glared at Treize.

"He's trying to use your hatred of him to destroy you," Treize said calmly, looking at her while keeping his gun on Velanz. "And your friends love you too much to stop you."

Diana snorted, a bitter sound. "And what do you think you're doing? You're no friend of mine."

"I respect you. I would not see someone like yourself destroyed by this." For a second his voice took on an edge as he nudged Velanz with the gun.

She shot him a startled look, then glanced from Velanz, to her people, and back again, her gaze finally coming to rest on Quatre, who swallowed. "He's right," he said in reply to her stare. "This needs to stop. He is trying to destroy you, and you're letting him."

Diana stared at him for a second longer, then suddenly turned her head away from him, as if she was trying to hide her face. She didn't make a sound, but he could see her trembling slightly. "If you want," Quatre offered quietly. "One of us will do it for you."

He heard Heero's grunt of agreement, saw Trowa's nod, and heard Duo muttering about, "Killing that sonnofa bitch."

For a long moment, there was no response. Then her trembling ceased, and Diana turned to face the room. Her face was once again calm, but she actually _seemed_ calmer now. The undercurrent of tension and anger that he'd been feeling since entering the room was greatly lessened, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Diana looked around the room, looking at each of her people in turn, glancing over the Gundam pilots, and finally staring at Treize, who didn't flinch from her scrutiny. Diana held out her hand. "I'd like my gun back, please," she said in a conversational tone.

Treize just stared at her without moving.

"I appreciate the offer, but I really do need to take care of this myself. Your point is well taken, but he is my problem. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do this. Please, my gun."

Quatre wasn't entirely sure what Treize was looking for, but apparently he saw it, because he flicked the safety on the gun, turned it over in his hand, and handed it over to her with a short bow. Diana gave him a sharp look before flicking off the safety and turning to Velanz. Velanz made a desperate lunge towards her, but somehow both Brian and Andrew were already there, holding him down. Diana aimed the gun at Velanz's head. For a second a slight tremor shook her hand, but she quickly stilled it. "Adam Velanz. For crimes you have committed against the colonists of Terra, for the murder of eight thousand two hundred thirteen people in Eppa colony, for the murder of six thousand…" Diana continued listing off the numbers of people he'd killed for several more minutes, in slowly decreasing number increments, while Quatre listened in growing horror. The man had killed tens of thousands of people!

And he sat there calmly as Diana continued to list off the deaths that he'd caused, a small smile on his face, his eyes flicking around the room now and then. Quatre could feel his terror beating against the shields he erected to keep other people's emotions from overwhelming him, but not a hint of remorse for anything he'd done. He remained outwardly composed, but his eyes began traveling around the room more and more often, like a trapped animal, and the feeling of terror in the room increased. Quatre closed his eyes for a few seconds to reinforce his shields.

When he opened them, Diana seemed to be finishing her recitation. "…for the murder of three rebels that you caught eight days ago in the southern sector. Finally, for the murder…" she hesitated for a second, and that tremor returned to her hand for a second before she stilled it, "…for the murder of Ambassador Dorlian. For this and innumerable other crimes against the people of Terra, I, in my capacity as chief representative of Alpha to the Alliance, and as the Tiger, sentence you to death." Diana's eyes flicked towards her group. "Witnessed?"

"Witnessed!" they chorused.

Diana looked down at Velanz, then pulled the trigger.

Wow. I really didn't plan on it going that way. I sorta planned to play around with Treize and Diana talking to each other, I didn't intend for either of them to think any more of it than that. Then they had to go and build this twisted relationship based on respect. I'm not sure if I got Treize right, he's hard for me, but that seemed like the sort of thing he'd do.

Hope everyone's enjoying it so far!

Marika 6/16/04

uchuu no koroko usually translated as 'space heart' or 'heart of outer space' Thank you, Tai and Vesper, for reminding me what it was!

Extra note: I realized, going back through some of my old files, that I never posted the end of this story. Well, technically I never finished it, which is why I didn't finish posting it, but it's practically done, save for an epilogue or so. I'm going to finish it up and post it.

I've moved on from fanfiction in the last several years, but I don't like the thought of leaving this unfinished. Sorry for leaving people hanging so long.

Marika 08/15/07


End file.
